You will not be able to stay home, brother.

You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.

You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and

skip out for beer during commercials,

Because the revolution will not be televised.

- Gil Scott-Heron

In the end, I wore yellow for Maria Chin Abdullah. I wore yellow for Ronnie Liu, Tian Khiew, Mandeep Singh Karpall Singh, Muhamad Luqman Nul Haqim Zul Razali, Arutchelvan Subramaniam, Wong Chee Wai @ Jimmy Wong, Lee Khai Meng, Anis Syafiqah Md Yusof, Hairol Nizam Md Nor, Razali Zakaria Muhamad Safwan Anang @ Talib, Howard Lee Chuan How and of course, one of the activists I admire the most, Hishamuddin Rais, who had asked when I last met him, “When are you going to be arrested?’

Soon, I guess, soon.

I wore yellow for all those people who were locked up under the Internal Security Act in years past. I wore yellow for the red-shirts, the police, the journalists and every citizen no matter if they support Bersih 5 or not. I wore yellow because this was part of what Malaysiakini writer Hazlan Zakaria means by making our democracy great again.

For a couple of Bersihs now, I have written these snapshots of what it was like being there. I have attended most of the public protests, even the last one organised by PAS. To me democracy means more than just making a mark on a ballot paper. It means standing in solidarity with people whose agendas sometimes do not mesh with mine, but the commonality of travelling on the same road means giving a damn about your fellow citizens.

This piece is not about the numbers game. I make no claims as to how many people were on the streets. My articles on “being there”, is about talking to people, attempting to understand their motivations and walking around with my fellow citizens. Threats from the Umno establishment always seem a feature of Bersih rallies.

This time the threat seemed more odious. The red-shirts had stalked Bersih for months and I was extremely pissed off by how they were mollycoddled by the Umno state while engaging in criminal behaviour.

To be honest I thought I would sit this one out, but ultimately I decided that I should not back down from these bullies and make a stand even if it meant displeasing comrades from my past.

I did not start off wearing yellow. That came later. No point being banned from the party before you had a chance to dance. However, three college-aged women on the train to the city thought otherwise. The two Malay and Chinese women were chatting amongst themselves decked out in their yellow Bersih finest, pondering which entry to take to the big show.

To be honest I was a bit worried for them. I did not like the idea that these young people made such obvious targets for Jamal’s hungry red-shirts. However, other young people soon joined them and I got down to the business of taking care of this old man who was finding it difficult to muster up the required enthusiasm for the long day ahead.