While he does not personally support street demonstrations, former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan acknowledged today that these can be held, provided police accompany or escort the demonstrators.

Musa said a street demonstration could disrupt traffic flow, especially if a large number of people were involved.

"However, if it is conducted like what is done overseas, then there must be police accompanying the crowd to minimise the disruption of traffic," he said.

NONE Musa ( right ) said this at a forum titled 'Gangster politics: Where is our honour?' organised by Malay daily Sinar Harian in Shah Alam today.

The former top cop also called for a stop to the practise of the politics of hatred in Malaysia, saying Malaysians should learn that after an election, they should sit down and chart the nation's progress.

The problem with Malaysia now, he said, was that there have been a lot of politicking since the 2008 general election.

As a developing democracy, the practise of violence should stop and the people should be more mature in channelling their grouses.

‘Give us a level playing field'

Another panellist, PAS supreme council member Mohd Hanipa Maidin, pointed out that the politics of hatred would not occur if the government, and especially BN and Umno, granted the opposition a level-playing field.

NONE Hanipa ( left ) called for the government to give the opposition equal access to the media and not to influence the police to be on its side, on which he referred to Musa's revelation of Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein interfering in the work of the police force.

A practising lawyer, Hanipa said the government should accept diverse opinions, not suppress them.

"This will lead to an unhealthy practices, culminating in what we could term as gangster politics," he said.

He also pointed out that the distribution of oil royalty and the federal financial allocations to states held by the opposition were also not properly practised by the BN government.

"This can be seen clearly in Kelantan, where the development funds are held by a federal agency. Similarly, the oil royalty payments were withheld when Terengganu was ruled by PAS.

"However, when the announcement was made about oil discovery in Pahang, the matter was met positively as the state is under the BN. What will happen if it comes under the opposition in the next general election?" Hanipa asked.

MIC's Hulu Selangor parliamentarian P Kamalanathan said the opposition's views were taken into consideration, such as by the Parliamentary Action Committee, which has a BN member as chairperson and a DAP member as its deputy.

Kamalanathan said the Election Commission had also allowed provisions for television stations to give proper air time for the opposition and this should be recognised as one of the positive actions of the BN government.

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