The challenge of Bersih 4’s income and expense statement

For me, the top news of the week is the publication of the Bersih 4 accounts and the challenge posed to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to reveal his accounts.

I attended the media conference during which Bersih 2.0 (the organiser of Bersih 4) revealed the accounts. I was very impressed by the 2,126-page bank statement Bersih received for the month of August.

The statement was so long because of the estimated 27,000 direct debit transfers into Bersih’s account, amounting to RM2.06 million.

Bersih kept to its promise to publish its accounts for Bersih 4, the 34-hour protest which brought half a million people onto the streets of Kuala Lumpur alone.

That it has done so within five weeks of the event, despite such a large volume of transactions, is highly commendable.

I’m a numbers guy, who also realises numbers aren’t everything.

What is striking about Bersih 4 is that it was volunteer-driven. My most striking memories of Bersih 4 are not the speakers, since they could barely be heard.

My memories are of the volunteers: the invisible ones who labored on the logistics and publicity before and during the two days and the visible ones who labored to provide medical, security and clean-up services.

Perhaps the biggest lesson politicians and civil servants can learn from Bersih 4 is that non-governmental organisations have come of age in Malaysia. (Bersih 2.0 is a coalition of 89 NGOs.)

Bersih 2.0 truly represents the voice of the people.

The release of the Bersih 4 accounts together with the display of the 2,126 page bank statement was accompanied by a media release.

The media release said there were about 27,000 online transfers of cash into Bersih’s account, the majority of these transfers were for amounts ranging from RM10 – RM50 (the numbers were estimates because Bersih hasn’t done an exhaustive study of the bank statement).

I said earlier that volunteers are what I remember most about Bersih 4. The importance of volunteers in the success of Bersih 4 is borne by the accounts.

The total expenses for Bersih 4 amounted to RM346,000, of which RM50,000 was for expenses incurred in Sarawak.

So, the cost of the Kuala Lumpur event was RM296,000. What’s in that cost?

The bulk of the cost (83%) went to five items, each of which I will briefly describe.

The first, RM118,000, was spent in allowances and other provisions for those who provided security – the people who directed the crowds, apprehended trouble makers, kept Dataran Merdeka from being breached, etc. They also cleared the rubbish, as a result of which everyone – except DBKL – noticed how clean the streets were after Bersih 4.

Assuming about 2,000 volunteers, the cost comes to about RM50 per person.

The second, RM72,000, was spent on logistics. About RM 63,000 was spent on hiring of the main stage, mobile stages and mobile toilets.

The third, RM20,000, was spent on provision of medical services. About RM15,000 was spent on hire of ambulances and medical equipment. Other big items were medication and banners to ensure rally participants could easily locate the medical teams.

The fourth, RM20,000, was spent on media and publicity. Items in the list of expenses include videos, posters, banners and web presence.

The fifth, RM17,000, was for “documentation”. This was payment for aerial photographs at regular intervals to enable estimation of the crowd. It is on the basis of these photos that Bersih claims 500,000 persons attended Bersih 4 in Kuala Lumpur over 34 hours.

Anyone who has organised a concert or a conference will know that an expenditure of RM296,000 for a 34-hour event is peanuts.

There is only one reason for such a low figure and such an outstanding outcome – a peaceful protest which probably left the city cleaner than at the beginning of the event. The reason is: thousands of volunteers.

There were hundreds of thousands of participants. There were thousands of volunteers. There were also tens of thousands of donors.

Donations in excess of expenses swelled Bersih’s accounts by about RM2 million!

I am looking forward to the publication of the accounts for the red shirts rally. I am looking forward to comments by the Election Commission and ministers about Bersih 4’s accounts.

Most of all, I am looking forward to Najib’s accounting for the RM2.6 billion “donation”. – October 8, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.