You guys know why the police are so sensitive and jerky these days? Look at thailand and taiwan and the street protests there. Our police are worried sick that if little gatherings are not nipped immediately they could well gather momentum and turn into large scale street protests like those we saw in thailand and taiwan. And the police are worried sick because their masters (our umno politicians) were having sleepless nights.

Those sleepless nights no doubt are due to fear – fear of losing their power and hence wealth. But if they have done nothing wrong then really they have nothing to fear. Its “makan cili rasa pedas” pure and simple. So I would take the police actions and reactions towards the people as an accurate reflection of umno’s insecurity and level of fear and desperation. And in the quest for a better malaysia, information on umno’s insecurity and desperation (whether directly or indirectly obtained) could serve pakatan’s efforts well.

Come to think of it thailand and taiwan have better press freedom than malaysia. At least there dissatisfied thais and taiwanese have a channel to vent their anger. And their respective government is subject to constant public scrutiny via the local media. And the thai judiciary still upholds the laws. Yet thais and taiwanese take to the streets. Malaysians are worse off in the hands of umno and we still do not usually resort to massive street protests.

It suggests two things: (1) That malaysians are politically matured. Given the partisan EC and unlevel playing field constructed by umno, malaysians by and large still trust the strength of the ballot box. That is also to say, malaysia actually is ready for change – through the lawful channel. Chinese and indians are definitely ready. A large number of malays too are ready – especially the urban and educated malays. (2) Street protest really is not our culture. We had our share of such protests. But they remained as isolated incidents and as isolated incidents they are unlikely to attrack large scale interests. The police ought to know this well. That means their fear of similar massive street protests like those in thailand and taiwan taking root in malaysian streets is unfounded.

So perhaps more than fear and insecurity and desperation, umno could actually be feeling panicky and is scared of its own shadow and is hallucinating all the way.