When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her. - Oscar Wilde

COMMENT Abdar Rahman Koya's 'In defence of storming the barricades at Dataran' is nothing more than a bellicose, pro-Anwar Ibrahim polemic that should be rejected by all right-thinking Malaysians interested in non-violent protests, which at this moment is a possible avenue for constructive change in Malaysia.

Abdar Rahman laments the fact that the cause of electoral reform has been sidelined by the violence on April 28, but yet chooses to glorify those who partook in it and mock those who were there for a peaceful non-violent protest and their anger at those (whoever they are and for whatever reason) who may have provoked that violence by storming the barricade.

He assumes these ‘law-abiding citizens' have not asked those important questions that he thinks relevant such as ‘which law' and ‘whose courts' forgetting the fact that there were many protesters who were repeat offenders of previous Bersih marches who obviously disregarded ‘unjust laws' imposed by an ‘unjust regime' to attend those marches.

What Abdar Rahman does not seem to consider is whoever broke through those barricades did not consider the more important compact between the general public and the Bersih steering committee for a peaceful non-violent protest.

They (and him) did not consider the various other interest groups who were there like the Himpunan Hijau movement and various other NGOs which signed up for a non-violent protest and who agreed with the parameters the Bersih steering committee agreed to...