DAP's launch of 'Return the third vote restore local government election' at the Merdeka Square in Kuala Lumpur on March 1 was met with strong police presence and the arrest of six DAP men including a Kuala Lumpur member of parliament and a Perak state sssemblyman.

What kind of democracy do we call our country? Is there no more democratic space left to express ourselves? What is our 90 percent majority government afraid of?

The politics of intimidation only shows how fragile peace and harmony is in our so-called democratic country, touted to be exemplary to other developing countries.

The insecurity of our government lies in the threat of the third vote which it has got used to not having for the past 40 years. All these years, town and city councillors were selected from Barisan Nasional component parties as a form of reward for those not selected to stand for parliamentary and state elections. Imagine this cosy arrangement being taken away by a DAP initiative!

The banning of local government elections was ostensibly because of the communist threat. Chin Peng signed a Peace Accord with our government in1989, yet 15 years later, a peaceful gathering to regain this third vote is treated like a communist threat.

Similarly, the ISA has been conveniently maintained, very clearly to put away potential political rivals.

We have been told that we get the government we vote for. What we have got is a government which has over 90 percent majority in parliament still aiming for a zero-opposition in certain states, and unwilling to forgo any unfair advantages. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. How true!

It looks like the only way we can get the third vote (local council seats) is to exercise our first (parliamentary seats) and second (state seats) to get out of this unfair situation. We should support those political parties with manifestos in favour of local government elections.