Street protests are aimed at bringing to attention a cause deemed important by the people, but ostensibly ignored by the government. It is a show of people-power and its objective is to bring all activity in the vicinity of the protest to a standstill.

The two EDSA revolutions in Manila and the Bangkok protests by the yellow and red shirt groups are examples closer to home.

It is comical for Umno leaders to insinuate, via their mouthpieces in the print media and TV3 that traders were inconvenienced, traffic jams were endless and losses up to RM200 million were incurred by businesses.

These are to be expected in any democracy when street protests take place. Less those TAR road traders think otherwise, the thousands who were out on the streets on Aug1 will be patronising their businesses the week after.

The whole idea of a protest is to show that the people are the masters and can bring everything to a standstill if they are oppressed. Street protests are the last refuge of a hapless citizenry, whose wishes have been deliberately ignored by government for far too long..

Protests do not take place instantaneously. It is a culmination of frustration over a long period of time which explains why such protests are rare and takes place for truly deserving reasons.

Many Malaysians do not appreciate it because we have been living in a semi-police state for decades. In none of the developed democracies do street protesters face hindrance and violence from the police.

The police's role is to coordinate the crowd and it is obvious that some roads would be closed to motorists.

It is a shame really that the PM has suggested having protests at stadiums. Stadiums are controlled environments and do not bring anything to a standstill - the very objective of street protests.

It is obvious, from his suggestion, that the government doesn't acknowledge the citizens as masters.

The wider public is usually forewarned if protests are to take place and if they still wish to drive out on that day, they have no one to blame but themselves for having to sit in their cars for hours.

We have a lot to learn about democracy and so obviously too, the PM.