I refer to the Malaysiakini reports, Opposition are 'pondans' - Nazri's tirade and letter to the editor, Bersih's rally was about accountability by Umran Kadir.

As a citizen of this country, I believe everyone should follow the rules. If the public rally was not allowed by the police then it should not have been done. What bothers me is that while public rallies are allowed by the constitution, the issue of police permit was not use with common sense.

I believe that if the police had allow the gathering at a specific location, let's say Bukit Jalil Stadium or Stadium Merdeka, allowed a small group of representatives to walk to Istana Negara and requested the cooperation of the organisers, the event would have been much more peaceful.

Based on what I saw on TV and various pictures on the Internet, I feel there was no reason for the police to fire tear gas and water cannons. Instead of finding fault and not allowing the event to take place, the police should have shown greater customer service by engaging the organisers in ensuring that safety and peace in this country is preserved. This would have augur well for the police force as an independent party.

Let us look at the basic issues at hand. Let's not get entangled in all these irrational emotions with shouting matches in Parliament. The Bersih organisers have requested certain steps to be taken to ensure a clean and fair election process. If the ruling party had allowed the Election Commission to study this request and if some are implemented, I believe it will enhance the image of EC, BN and the country itself.

What they are asking is for EC to ensure a fair and level-playing ground. I feel that if this is not done, the image of BN will deteriorate further. When I see pictures on the Internet where the Pahang menteri besar shows his middle finger to the crowd and Nazri calling opposition "pondan", it does not augur well for the image of BN.

I would like to highlight a few points raised by the organisers, which I copied from the Internet: They have requested an immediate action.

i) Penyemakan semula daftar pemilih yang lengkap demi memastikan segala kesalahan dan ketimpangan yang sedia ada dapat dihapuskan.

After reading this, I wondered if there are such serious flaws in the registered voters' list. I decided to go into the EC website and search for my own registration using my old and new IC numbers. To my shock, I saw that my name is registered in two locations. One in my kampung in Perak and the other at my current residence.

I first noticed this problem more than five years ago and had since emailed the EC not less than three times to get it rectified. Upon seeing the two registrations, I immediately sent an email to the EC two days ago. I did not even receive a reply. My own assessment is that the EC's organisational weakness is indirectly contributing to the poor image of BN.

ii) Penggunaan dakwat kekal untuk menghalang pengundian berganda.

This has been agreed to by the EC and I feel this is a good thing and will improve the image of the EC and the government.

iii) Pemansuhan sistem pengundian pos kecuali untuk para diplomat dan pengundi lain di luar negara.

This is a reasonable request. The country is not at war. All soldiers will have access to voting. Only a small number of soldiers are located overseas and in the jungle. We need to find systematic ways of reaching them and obtain their votes in a more transparent manner. I wonder how this is being done in other advanced countries.

iv) Akses media yang adil kepada semua pihak dalam pilihanraya.

This is common sense. The EC does not control the media, the ruling party does. If the opposition was the ruling party, they too will not allow their opponents to have access to the media. There is no point in highlighting this issue. What the opposition party should do is to find ways to get into the media and reach their target audience.

Have you ever thought about getting the management control of TV3. If the opposition party get themselves organised and accumulate TV3 shares systematically (after all, they are listed) they would have control of the media. This will give you the voice that you desire. I guess many people don't realsze that Media Prima controls a large section of air time, printing and billboard media.

After analysing the facts, my conclusion is that the ruling party should now look at various ways to uplift its image most effectively, I believe, by implementing the first three items listed above.