In yesterday's article, Keadilan vice president Tian Chua asked: "How can they accuse us of creating unrest when we are fighting to enhance the people's trust in the judiciary, among other aspects?"

His reasoning that one who is fighting for what is right cannot be creating unrest, is not logical. 'Unrest' and fighting for what one believes in are two separate issues. One can certainly fight for one's cause whilst brewing up unrest. Look at the history of Indonesia and China - if the students did not protest and demonstrate, it would not have created the kind of uproar and unrest that it did.

Tian Chua may argue that the unrests in Indonesia and China did result in an improvement to the political scene - therefore the end justifies the means. But this is a different point altogether.

Looking at the history of reformasi in Malaysia - I do not remember these events of 1998/1999 as peaceful. I remember the fear of being in the demonstration area, the destruction of public property. Were these not unrest? Did they not result from demonstrations being held in the first place?

Of course I am not saying that the reaction from the police were at all appropriate. But I remember the anger of reformasi supporters. Can Tian Chua guarantee that there will not be any of the same, that it would indeed be peaceful? I question his movement; I question his supporters. Are you really fighting to enhance the people's trust in the judiciary? Or is this another cheap publicity stunt? No one will doubt that the foreign media will be having a field day. At the previous demonstration, they managed to make it look like the whole of KL were behind the reformasi movement - which was indeed a far cry. How many of us purposely avoided the target demonstration areas?

What I do know is this? A friend of mine participated in the 1998 demonstrations. He was heard saying: "When else would there be an occasion to be angry and run around the streets destroying things and shouting and just being a rebel and be heard?" We note that he ended up spending a few nights in jail, which did sober him up.

So now, at the threshold of another demonstration, I will definitely avoid the KL area this weekend. I doubt it would be peaceful, not because I doubt Tian Chua (actually, I do have a high respect for the man and his principles), but his chosen means and ability to control those with him. More than that, I doubt if there would be any positive end to justify the experience, simply because these kind of demonstrations have not worked in Malaysia.