Bersih 4 was undeniably the biggest street protest that Malaysia has ever seen. Held over 34 hours from August 29-30, it saw no let-up in the numbers that showed up – except on the first night when an initial crowd of about 100,000 that had gathered during the day dwindled to a fifth of that. And an even smaller number – about 5,000 – stayed on to spend the night sleeping on the streets.
But come the next day, the numbers swelled again. By nightfall, they built up to an awesome multitude of yellow, the colour of their Bersih 4 T-shirts, glowing with resolve. And by the time the rally ended at midnight, with participants proudly singing the national anthem, there must have been 120,000 or more present.
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