YOURSAY 'And if you keep your word and not interfere in these peaceful rallies, there will no problem at all, minister.'

Home minister sees PJ rally as 'an act of provocation'

Cogito Ergo Sum: "Moral change can never be accomplished by immoral means," said the late Martin Luther King Jr, when confronted by the white supremacists in the United States.

His policy of non-violence, no matter how many times one has been "hit on the head by a policeman's truncheon" eventually won the day.

I doubt if any of the opposition rallies were violent in nature. If they had, I am quite sure our police force would have had no hesitation in bringing out the FRU (riot police) and dousing out the 'troublemakers'.

The rallies are an affront, basically, to the ruling party. Common sense will tell you that the rallies are being held in urban areas, whose multiethnic voters have opted for the opposition.

Accept it and deal with it over the next five years. By coming down hard, you're making the resolve even more concrete, thereby eroding your reconciliation efforts. Let common sense prevail. And let good be done.

Ferdtan: Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi sees Petaling Jaya rally as "an act of provocatiom".

Really, a series of rallies around the country had been successfully organised without any trouble or violence. The main reason was that there were no police and FRUs present to ‘cause' disturbances.

The participants even tolerated the massive traffic jams, no thanks to the absence of the traffic police officers.

The minority BN government is hurt by the massive show of support of the rakyat at these rallies. Now in desperation, the weak government is cracking down on the movement.

Mahatma Gandhi, who took on the mighty British Empire and won had this to say, "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win."

We are now at the stage of "they fight us" - winning will come soon.

Kee Thuan Chye: We the rakyat do not recognise the Public Assembly Act. We protested against it but it was nonetheless pushed through Parliament in haste. We want it repealed.

We should have the freedom to gather at any time at any place without having to inform the police 10 days before our proposed gathering.

It's absurd to impose such a limitation on any gathering as there are bound to be some that will be called spontaneously. This was one of them.

It is the police that have to listen to the rakyat. Their salaries come out of the taxes paid by the rakyat. They are the rakyat's employees. So back off!

Bernard Phillips: And if you keep your word and not interfere in these rallies and leave it to the professionals to do their job, there will no problem at all, minister.

You see, the rakyat also include the police and their families and they are equally sick that Umno has stolen the elections. All the rallies have been well-organised and very disciplined - something all Malaysians should be proud of.

What Umno needs to do is to reign in its thugs and make sure they do not cause any problems. I am proud that we have a situation where people can come together peacefully to voice their views.

Ynwa: I attended the rally in PJ. It was so peaceful and beautiful, without any police officer in sight, except the traffic cops. Bersih 3.0 would been the same had there been no provocation from some unseen hands. We know who these "planted" people were.

Acthung: All citizens' rallies have been peaceful until the official hooligans in blue uniforms without their name tags started to provoke and mercilessly attack the participants exercising their democratic rights just like during the Bersih demonstrations.

Anwar_Our_PM: The home minister's and the police chief's only concern is about suppressing people's freedom by use of all the authority available to them. Sadly, neither the rising crime rate nor brutal death in police custody is of any priority to them.

Are they so in denial that they believe that they can get away with whatever they do indefinitely? The time will come for all of them to answer for their actions soon enough. That is the law of karma.

Our Right: So far, all the gatherings were peaceful and orderly, especially without police presence. The mentality of the rakyat are much more mature than our minister.

I have been to a few of the gatherings and the situation was truly Malaysian. The future of Malaysia lies with this group of Malaysians, not the Umno types.

They are the ones who have passion to save Malaysia and willing to risk their own safety against the Umno bullies. Bravo.

Hmmmmmmmm: There are so many contradictions in Zahid's statements . He gives a list of all the things that he claims are wrongdoings by the rally organisers and then he hints to the police that he's confident that the police will know what to do.

But previously he mentioned that he did not interfere in the police work as they were professionals.

Human Being: Indeed, Ahmad Zahid's existence provokes me.

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