I refer to the letter I want to run as independent in upcoming polls .

The writer's proposal is the first practical step towards improving the lot of the underclass (yes, underclass as opposed to the superclass in power today).To win, you have to participate - there is no other way in a parliamentary democracy.

One can debate the issues till the cows come home and till we lose the shirts we are wearing but to make a difference, you need to get elected into Parliament and change the laws that bind you.

I speak as one who did the election thing three decades ago.

It is not such a difficult thing. If Tan can get his 100 merry men and women, I think the deposits can be sorted out.

Just one caveat. Malaysian politics is highly treacherous. I have seen so many idealistic young men and women wilt at the wayside in the heat of an election battle and after winning the battle lose the war by joining the other side.

When Nathaniel Tan was held by the police on the blogging fiasco, he was asked to stop blogging and emulate a once idealistic schoolteacher. That idealistic schoolteacher was once as an opposition MP who went round the streets of KL championing the cause of hawkers.

Mr Alex Tan, just make sure that after you get elected, you don't end up joining a Barisan Nasional outfit at a good salary lecturing Malaysians how to avoid drugs and how to make the country crime-free. It would make my stomach turn.