Hindraf rally: Law and order

By : ADAM JOHARI, Petaling Jaya
DURING the past few months, we have seen three highly publicised street demonstrations - the so-called Peace Walk by a group of lawyers at Putrajaya, the mass gathering of supporters of opposition political parties and non-governmental organisations labelling themselves as the Bersih movement and, on Sunday, the Hindraf march.
While street demonstrations are nothing new in this country, the motives behind these recent events are far from clear.
In the fight for independence, there were street marches by groups against the British-inspired Malayan Union administration. They were peaceful and hardly caused any damage to persons or properties. The British ultimately bowed to the legitimate wishes of the people, which were clearly but peacefully demonstrated, and withdrew the Malayan Union plan.
More recently, we saw street demonstrations by the Reformasi group following Anwar Ibrahim's fall-out with Umno. Groups of his supporters took to the streets without regard to public safety and well-being. Law and order were, however, maintained by the firm stand of the authorities.

Now, we have people with all sorts of grouses, real or imagined, who include professionals, members of political parties, NGOs and religious groups, taking to the streets.
Whatever the motives behind these recent street rallies and whether or not they were orchestrated by any particular group, the government needs to take them for what they are.
If these demonstrations are illegal, then the government should act firmly against any law breakers whether they are at the head of the demonstrations or behind the scenes.
The tendency of taking to the streets for unjustifiable reasons or fanciful notions should be stopped before it becomes a way of life as seen in other countries. It is wasteful and a drain to the economy as it requires deployment of resources more needed and better utilised for other purposes.
It is bad for our tourism industry and foreign investment climate. It harms commerce and disrupts people movement. It creates unnecessary anxiety among law-abiding and peace-loving citizens.
We have enough functioning institutions and mechanisms that have evolved over more than 50 years to handle grouses of all groups and sections of society, based on our unique diversity, including parliament, the Conference of Rulers, the National Consultative Council and others.