Malaysiakini Jul 11, 11
Even as thousands descended on Kuala Lumpur for the Bersih 2.0 rally on Saturday, netizens held their own protest via Facebook to demand the prime minister’s resignation.
The page, ‘100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak Resignation’, quickly hit its six-figure target, garnering a staggering 109,484 ‘likes’ from Facebook users within 48 hours.
A large part of the virtual congregation is made up of Bersih 2.0 supporters, many of whom have used the official Bersih 2.0 profile badge.
One Terry Hong commented that the group was a form of support for the NGO coalition: “He (Najib) said that many of the rakyat did not attend Bersih 2.0 because they ignored Bersih 2.0. Here to let him know, not attending does not mean not supporting.” (The comment has been edited for grammar.)
Azmi Nama Ku wrote: “Inspector-general of police said only 6,000 people demonstrated and added that demonstrators were paid RM200 each to demonstrate. But now this page has achieved 106,471 likes, they (Bersih) must be rich to pay RM200 each to like this page.”
The page was set up on Saturday, the day of the Bersih 2.0 rally, to serve as a platform for netizens to voice their grouses against the government. However, no information is provided on who created the page.
Supporters who expressed surprise with the rapid rise in ‘likes’ are now calling for the target to be increased to a million.
The page has also inspired several other copycat pages on Facebook with similar titles.
This is not the first time real-life political action has inspired virtual groupings to pursue a cause.
Last year, the announcement of a plan to build a 100-storey mega-tower sparked outrage among taxpayers that spilled over onto the Internet.
It saw the creation of a page, ‘1M Malaysians Reject 100-storey Mega Tower’, which now has almost 300,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook.