I refer to the story ‘Bobbies not good in riot control’ published in The Sun on Aug 11.

In the article, one Fithrah Shaiera Aziz, 26, is quoted extensively where he says the police were "bullied".  Apparently in London the police are not used to handling riots whereas "the Malaysian police have more experience".

This young man is obviously making comparisons and hence his opinions. It would suggest that he has lived a long time and has seen what happens in Malaysia and how Malaysians conduct themselves when they do run about unchecked.

However, whatever his visuals are, I certainly have not seen or read about it happening in Malaysia. Yes, May 13, 1969 happened and people were killed. Motor vehicles were torched and houses and property was destroyed. But that happened in 1969, when I was 13 and this young man had to wait another 16 years to be sired.

Of course, the impressions painted of dangers and possibilities of "unlawful assemblies"  by the authorities and exaggerated by the mainstream media would suggest that the kind of mayhem seen in the streets of England this past week as a walk in the park.

But what Fithrah suggests and The Sun found fit to publish is an insult to all those who participated and have participated in all kinds of "illegal assemblies" in Malaysia in the last 10 years.

Indeed even in the hey days of Reformasi when anger was at its highest there was no disturbance like what you saw in the streets of inner cities of England this week.

To even compare the participants of the mobs of England with the "ugliest" of participants in any of the "illegal assemblies" suggests a total lack of experience and witness by this individual of the happenings in Malaysia.

The Malaysian participants were not exactly thuggish unemployed youths with no money in their pockets out to profit from any mayhem they would cause. Maybe the Hindraf rally of Nov 25 might have had some believe in the presence of such characters.

But certainly no windows were broken and no looting or torching took place. It was only the over exaggerated response of the police that can fairly be compared to the thugs of the English civilian breakdown.  

In Malaysia the assembly could have been classified illegal by the authorities, but certainly there was no civilian breakdown. If at all there was any ugly assemblies one would have to look at the images of assemblies outside the US embassies, often led by Umno Youth.

The Sun would be advised not to sully the image and impressions of "illegal assemblies" in Malaysia by publishing such gibberish of inexperienced Malaysians who are unable to keep track of what they spout.