There was a point where progressive forces in the country could organise and mobilise hundreds of thousands of people on a multicultural platform. We are of course talking about movements like BERSIH. But after the historic 2018 general election, when the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition was toppled for the first time in the nation’s history, everything changed. Progressive civil society organisations that had spent years as outsiders suddenly found themselves inside the halls of power, with unprecedented access to parliamentarians, ministers, and policymaking processes. 

So, what does that mean? How much of influence did they have? And what does it mean that the streets were left to be filled by conservative forces? 

This is exactly what Ooi Kok Hin explores in his paper published for the R. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, titled Influencing Power: Civil Society, Political Mobilisation and the Pursuit of Reforms. Kok Hin was the former executive director of Bersih and is currently leading the Malaysia office of a UK public body dedicated to making democracy and governance stronger. In this episode, we speak to Ooi Kok Hin.

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