This article is written to provide my own perspective of the criticism on Anwar Ibrahim by student bodies as well as some political analysts on the Prime Minister’s stand of advising students to seek alternative means of protests than demonstrations on the street.

On the one hand, I am not surprised that some student activists have criticized Anwar for his stand, but I am surprised at political analysts who stood by the students using the students’ argument.

In this article, I will explain my personal stand on street demonstrations as a citizen, as a parent and as an academic.

I believe in democracy of one vote for one citizen. I believe in freedom of speech. I also believe in peaceful demonstrations.

However, as a parent, as an academic and as a citizen of Malaysia, I have always cautioned about having wisdom in all the three aspects of voting, demonstrating and making political statements.

Just because we can do all of the above does not mean that we should.

As a structure engineer, Mario Salvadori says in his book “Why buildings Stand up,” the question of whether we can build something big and fantastic is not the real question, but the real question is whether we should.

The creator of atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer also placed much value in the wisdom of political actions and not just because you can split the atom with technology.

When Jesus asked the people from stoning a lady accused of being a prostitute, he asked that wisdom calls on everyone to consider their own sins even though the law was clear and the punishment was socially accepted.

It is clear to me that Anwar showed great wisdom but both the students and political analysts had no wisdom whatsoever.

As a citizen, I have seen in my lifetime the great demonstrations of Anwar’s Reformasi movement.

That was in the very early days of the desk computer and the internet. News was still through CNN and Singapore’s news network. Our own RTM and TV3 langsung tak boleh pakai!

There are now many forces trying to light the fire storm of racism, extremism and hatred, and all they need is a street demonstration or two to spark it off.

I have also witnessed the great Bersih rally at the height of the internet revolution.

I must admit that I felt very proud of all the Malays and Malaysians in both street demonstrations.

I think that Anwar’s Reformasi demonstration was “necessary” but the Bersih and others after that was perhaps not so, because the internet was already in place.

I did not go to any of these rallies but my wife and daughter did.

As a parent, I am most concerned about the safety of my children. Although I felt very strongly about the injustice on Anwar Ibrahim, I had to think of the safety of my children against the potential violence that could be perpetrated by agents provocateur, the Special Branch and the police in controlling the people.

My daughter had experienced tear gas against my advice not to go. She never went after that.

Thus, when Anwar gave that advice to the students, he, like me, was probably being a parent whose first responsibility is the safety of his children.

When I was on a lecture tour in Indonesia, I met the students of Universitas Indonesia. There the student body was strong and if they marched, the country would come to a halt.

However, I had given them the same advice as Anwar did at UiTM. I told the students to form a group of English-speaking graduates who would tour the world giving speeches, meeting politicians of the world in order to explain the stand of Muslim Indonesians to the world.

Those were the days before the internet.

We can also see how in the recent GE15 some political parties were said to have paid thousands of ringgit to hundreds of social media influencers to turn the tide of political battle against their rivals. And they succeeded even beyond their belief.

Thus, I am happy to say that the days of street demonstrations are numbered. It would be a thing of the past unless the government diffuses the internet and then such things may come back to play.

Finally, I wish to remind the students and the simple-minded political analysts not to just use simple comparisons between what was in the past for Anwar and what is in the present to justify some kind of fair evaluation.

The young people in the universities presently do not have any idea of the horrors of the May 13 incident.

As I understood it, there were only a few street demonstrations but the result was the death of innocent bystanders in the thousands.

Street demonstrations are like fire. A small fire can give us warmth and cook our meals but if it catches a life of its own, it will destroy an entire city. Don’t play with fire…ever.

In conclusion, as Anwar attempts to make a good democracy work for all of us, we Malaysians must always use wisdom and not our “fundamental rights to free speech and freedom of assembly” without taking into consideration the context of the situation.

There are now many forces trying to light the fire storm of racism, extremism and hatred, and all they need is a street demonstration or two to spark it off.

So, to the graduates, think before you leap please.

(Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely.)