When students in the Philippines went to the streets to protest against strongman Ferdinand Marcos, they made it a point to march inside a ring of yellow ribbon. The purpose was to keep the regimes agent provocateurs at bay and ensure that their protest would remain peaceful.

These students, from their many years of campaigning against Marcos, knew well that such agitators were often deployed to commit acts of violence in order to cast aspersions on the protesters and to give police the excuse to crack down on a few heads.

In Malaysia — which is not a military dictatorship but where peaceful assemblies are banned — the government too, employs agent provocateurs.

Dont take our word for it. Ask Saifuddin Nasution — yes, the former Umno Youth leader who spearheaded Keadilans astounding victory in the 2000 Lunas by-election.

In 1996, Saifuddin, who was then Umno Youth secretary, led a government-organised mob to disrupt the Asia-Pacific Coalition for East Timor II (Apcet II) conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Four years later, Saifuddin — now a little wiser — told a public forum attended by East Timor independence leaders Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta that he was instructed by then deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob to storm the conference.

The storming, he said, had the blessings of the countrys top leaders who did not want to offend Indonesia strongman Suharto by allowing the conference to proceed.

Violent gang

Apcet II, held in Kuala Lumpurs Asia Hotel to discuss potential peace talks to resolve the East Timor imbroglio, was an offshoot of Apcet I in Manila, held in 1994.

The Kuala Lumpur conference had hardly begun when it was violently stopped by a gang of Barisan Nasional youth members. The angry mob broke the doors to the conference hall, overturned tables, threw chairs, and verbally as well as physically assaulted the participants.

The police, who are lightning fast in stopping opposition demonstrations, did not appear at the scene for more than one hour. Fortunately, despite intense provocation from the mob, the conference participants did not retaliate. Instead, they sat huddled together in one group until the police arrived.

This passive reaction was apparently not part of the script. The police were perhaps hoping for a MCA-style free-for-all, which would give them the reason to stop the meeting and put everyone under arrest.

Nonetheless, despite not breaking any laws, all 59 conference participants I went to meet him, escorted by a few senior police officers," said Saifuddin.

He added that the minister had told him, "By hook or by crook, you must stop the conference. Kalau tidak, saya anggap Pemuda Umno tiada telur (Otherwise, I would assume that Umno Youth has no balls)."

At that time, Umno Youth chief Zahid Hamidi was away in Africa with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad while deputy Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein was in Singapore meeting with the republics Peoples Action Party Youth chief George Yeo.

"I called Zahid (about the plan) and he consulted Dr Mahathir, who gave his support. Hishammuddin also backed the action. I then organised a 1,000-strong team with the aim of stopping the conference," Saifuddin said.

After the successful storming of the conference, Saifuddin was taken along by Megat Junid to the airport to meet Mahathir upon his return and the Umno Youth leader was personally commended for a job well done.

Monopoly on truth

Fast forward to February 2002.

Last week, the government accused PAS members of burning a police truck and throwing stones at law enforcement officers during a ceramah in Baling, Kedah.

It is unclear whether these were agent provocateurs — as PAS leaders allege — or indeed members of the opposition party.

We hope police will be more expeditious in investigating this matter compared to their earlier probe into last years University Malaya Dewan Tunku Cancellor fire — blamed on student radicals — which has so far not seen any light of day.

All mischief makers, whether agent provocateurs or opposition members, should be punished to the full extent of the law. However, such ugly cases of violence should not be used to justify a blanket ban on ceramah .

The government has recently confirmed that moves are being made to plug the last remaining loophole which has to date allowed Internet websites to evade censorship. The printing law is to be amended to require websites to get the governments approval before they can go online.

With the ban on ceramah and the muzzling of Internet news websites, the government hopes to maintain its monopoly of truth in the run-up to the next general elections.

It is imperative that this insidious project to control information must be challenged by those who believe that all citizens should have the right to access information they deem necessary to make decisions.

Indeed, a democracy is not a democracy without an informed electorate.