Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang takes a dig at PKR vice-president Tian Chua for claiming that the Kita Lawan protests are drawing huge crowds.

Chua was responding to Umno Youth Khairy Jamaluddin, who claimed that Kita Lawan does not have the same traction as the reformasi movement in the late nineties.

According to the Batu MP, the Kita Lawan march from Sogo to KLCC surpassed what was achieved in 1998 and 1999.

Disagreeing, Tan pointed out that during the reformasi period, there were almost 80,000 people who took to the streets to protest the jailing of Anwar Ibrahim.

Whereas, he said, the Kita Lawan protest only drew some "5,000 people" (media reports had placed the figure at 10,000) following Anwar's second incarceration on Feb 10.

"Did Tian Chua count (the crowd) by their heads or 'ears'? Reality check please," tweeted the Gerakan leader.

Cop allegedly bitten

This was an obvious jibe at Chua's court case in 2009, when the PKR MP was convicted after he allegedly bit a police personnel’s ear.

Chua, who denied this, had supposedly sunk his teeth into the policemen when stopped on his way to Parliament in 2007.

Back then, electoral watchdog Bersih had described the court's decision as "selective prosecution".

"The magistrate conveniently privileged the testimony of the plaintiff over that of Chua, when there is no single objective evidence that points to Chua's alleged biting of the policemen.

"And despite the police officer's admission of beating up Chua, he is not charged or suspended," it added.