In Is NUJ just a toothless tiger?, Anuar Rashid wrote that he personally went to see for himself the protest and vigil by The Sun's journalists.

I'm a journalist and a member of the National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJ) and I have attended three of the candlelight vigils in front of The Sun's headquarters and I'm proud to say that the protests were mainly about suspension, retrenchment and the non-payment of bonus. Issues of press freedom were given minor prominence.

The reason for this is because the first three issues are at the forefront of The Sun's owners attack against journalists. They are a direct threat to the livelihoods of the affected journalists and are the principal contradiction at this time, irrespective of whether or not opposition to the issues is a relatively safe action in the current political environment in Malaysia.

Of course, understanding the deeper causes for why retrenchments and other such things happen is important and the protestors and affected journalists will understand that as their struggle develops. They will begin to understand that the underlying cause for all that has happened is the capitalist system which is based on production for profit, rather than social need, and all the press freedom in the world is not going to stop retrenchments and the only difference will be that we'll have many journalists who are free to write what they want but have no paper to write for.

The Sun has been losing money and has retrenched staff and this is happening to staff in many companies in Malaysia and worldwide.

As the economic slump worsens, it could well happen in other papers too and if the NUJ succeeds in reversing or mitigating the effects of The Sun owners' action, it could result in other papers being more careful about taking similar actions.

I don't deny that press freedom is an important issue too, as are issues like politics, corruption, cronyism and so on which are related to what happened. However, to make them the key issues in this struggle at this time is to sidetrack the struggle.

Anuar did not say whether he got down from his car to talk to the protesting journalists about the importance of press freedom but I can tell him that when their rice bowl is at the forefront of their minds, most would probably have ignored him.

I don't know what Anuar does for a living but from his contemptuous attitude towards the affected journalists and their fellow brothers and sisters only reduces whatever little sympathy I might have for the plight of journalists in Kami and their cause.

Lim Kit Siang of DAP, Dr Syed Husin Ali of PRM and a representative of Parti Sosialis Malaysia attended the candlelight vigil but where were the Keadilan and the reformasi "heroes"?

Such people, like Anuar, who are contemptuous of people who are concerned about their economic survival will only end up on the sidelines of history.

Why did the reformasi movement in Indonesia succeed in removing Suharto from power, while the reformasi movement here hardly attracts any interest now?

The answer is economics — the people of Indonesia were in dire economic straits due to IMF-dictated measures which resulted in the removal of subsidies for basic essentials, causing much hardship especially for the poor in Indonesia.

On the other hand, Malaysians were relatively well-off and were certainly not starving — at least not as far as this city-boy knows and reformasi à la Malasie has more or less fizzled out.

Well, I can tell Anuar that if the economic crisis worsens, issues like reformasi will be forgotten by most people.