YOURSAY ‘The rakyat do not need to do anything to topple the government. Umno is quite capable of doing it in its own way.’

Anti-price hike Turun chief freed after 20 hours

SpongeBob: The police should ask themselves who is creating the chaos and tension in the society? Is the student movement or the PM of Malaysia?

Hello, you are arresting the wrong person. These students are standing up against corrupt leaders.

Who is filling the police’s rice bowls? Umno leaders or taxpayers? We are not expecting any gratuity from the police but a least carry out your duties impartially.

Hmmmmmmmm: A pre-emptive strike by the BN regime to stop all protests against the hugely unpopular price increases by labelling the upcoming protest as attempts to “topple the government”.

Tikusmati: Protesting an increase in cost of living is legitimate. It does not equal to toppling the government.

The rakyat do not need to do anything to topple the government. Umno is quite capable of doing it in its own way.

With unintelligent people at the top of all the ministries, the government is all but toppled. It is merely standing because it is too bloated to fall.

Cantabrigian: Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), why are you arresting a man who is fighting for your rights and welfare?

Student leader Mohd Azan Safar and his team are fighting for your ability to continuously feed your family, your right to a fair and just society and the right for you to be free from inconsiderate governance.

Instead of arresting criminals, you are now becoming one.

BLBS: History has proven that oppressive governments will always fall... and miserably. The more oppressive a government becomes, the more opposition will grow and mushroom.

It is the basic nature of human behaviour that the more you oppress, the stronger the will to fight becomes. It is your (the government) choice if you want to create a Thailand-style unrest in Malaysia. Citizens don't protest for no reasons.

Anonymous #37634848: Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin wants youths from schools and universities to be active in politics.

University student Mohd Azan and the interest groups only want to raise alarm at the price increases. Why arrest them?

Even concerned leaders in Umno-BN have been talking about the price hikes. The police should arrest them, too.

Let people breathe freedom of expression. Don't act like a police state. Laws are meant to protect the rakyat, not to harass them.

1Melayu: The Umno government is getting desperate for their price hikes have made the rakyat angry. They know it so they are now using their police to silence the people.

Malaysian 001: The police leadership is being herded like a bunch of sheep, not allowed to think by the inspector-general of police (IGP), whose only objective is to "protect" Umno and the Najib government at all costs, not realising that the damage they are doing.

With this arrest and similar actions, Pakatan Rakyat is laughing all the way to the 14th general election (GE14). The majority of these students are Malays and that is the real damage being done to Umno-BN.

Perkasa has seen it, so has Universiti Pertahanan Malaysia lecturer Ridhuan Tee Abdullah , but Umno is still blind and deaf.

Mushiro: This arrest will create more awareness and publicity for the New Year's eve protest. What a mockery, the people are not allowed to protest the blatant price hike and rising cost of living, but PM Najib Razak is allowed to misspend all our money.

Wira: Indeed, why can't the victimised hold peaceful protests when prices are skyrocketing because of corrupt policies and practices?

Onyourtoes: In my lifetime, I have seen many changes in the country - not so much in the physical sense alone. The national ethos has changed.

Growing up, I respected the police officers in brown khaki shorts. Of course, I don’t find them around anymore. Instead, I find many of them now with lots of pips and crowns on their shoulders parading everyday on TV giving press conferences.

I think a national police force under a single command is a mistake. It has become too strong and too overwhelming for the good of this country’s democracy.

We must get the fundamentals right. We can’t talk about the independence and the neutrality of the police force when it has become too powerful a state apparatus of the sitting government.

At worst, someday this unelected apparatus may even compel a sitting government to kowtow to them. The police should be de-federalised and put under the respective state governments with its own chain of command while we still can.

KnockKnock: A crime is an act (something you do) or omission (something you don’t do) that is against the law and punishable upon conviction.

Is showing placards a crime? Aren't we going a bit too far? Does this student leader deserves to be called a criminal when a crime has not been done?

James1067: When time, money, energy and human resources are needed to combat crime, they instead waste their resources on people complaining about unreasonable price hikes.

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