Zaid Ibrahim today urged Pakatan Harapan leaders to hold more gatherings like the "Nothing to Hide" event to "beat rogues who have everything to hide".

In his latest blog post, the former law minister also urged other Harapan leaders to emulate former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in being unafraid to answer difficult questions, and in being open and transparent.

"Fear and ignorance are their (the rogues') only weapons, and the people of this country must not be afraid of them. The people of Malaysia will be happy to have an alternative style of leadership. For many years, they have been accustomed to leaders who are prone to using bullying tactics and talking rubbish but who have always handed out money in exchange for political support. Thugs and rogues are the results.

"To my fellow-politicians, I say this: let's put a stop to this and start treating Malaysians with respect. Let's give them the right information and the right perspectives. Malaysians are smarter than what politicians might think," Zaid wrote.

Zaid's 'frightening moments' at the venue

Zaid also related the "frightening moments" he went through in the venue where the "Nothing to Hide 2" event was held.

"When the flares were thrown from the back of the hall and bottles were flying towards Mahathir, I thought some people were going to harm him.

"It crossed my mind that they might even burn down the hall. I rushed to a side door but it was locked from the outside. Someone was frantically kicking the door but we couldn’t open it. Panic set in. Were they really going to burn down the hall with us in it?" he said, adding that he was eventually able to leave through a back door.

Zaid then slammed the police, who he said, responded by saying they needed to talk to the organisers about the "security breach", instead of going after the troublemakers.

"But we live in a rogue culture. Our leaders behave like rogues and feel very proud of having such traits. Our young 'political operatives' are trained to behave like thugs, disturb meetings and march to Parliament to assault MPs.

"Our police seem reluctant to come down hard on such behaviour, maybe because they think it's the kind of thing approved by the top. A magistrate imposed a token fine on the person who assaulted MP Khalid Abdul Samad, but in other more civilised countries, the perpetrator would have been handed a deterrent sentence. Even our magistrates must take cognisance of this rising roguish culture," Zaid added in his blog.