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I stay in Subang Jaya, and I had witnessed how the immediate victims of toll hikes -- the Joe Public -- could stage a mass protest in a peaceful way even at a crowded place.

Somehow, I also read from the Internet -- the responsible journalists didn't report it in-depth -- that the police had roughed up and arrested a blogger at a peaceful assembly, and briefly detained an online journalist covering the event along the Grand Saga Tollway on January 21 2007. Several organisers were also detained, and according to South East Asia Press Alliance (SEAPA), the Opposition politicians were "grilled, threatened with prosecution for revealing government's contract with highway operator".

I read from Malaysiakini that today (Sunday February 4) there's going to be another anti-toll protest at the IOI Mall, in the Puchong township whose population is squeezed by not just one, but three concessionaires that had raised the toll rates.

I hope there will not be police brutality like what had been reported on the January 21 incident.

Federal-level legislator

I don't expect BN Member of Parliament for Puchong, Lau Yeng Peng, to join the local residents to protest against the toll hike, as he is federal-level legislator, and toll hikes are federal-level issues, so he should intermediate with his counterpart in the Parliament.

But I don't expect Lau to be there this afternoon to at least give a testimony of whether police brutality will recur, or police professionalism could prevail, just like the one I witnessed in my neighbourhood on January 7. Lau's presence will certainly thwart any possibility of brutality by the enforcers at the mass protest that, I was told, was intended for a peaceful staging.

By the way, my fellow residents had started to complain to me that they sorely missed Lau's company. Apparently, the new MP has stopped visiting his constituency in USJ 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 some ten months after we had put him in there in April 2004.

P/S: I also expected leaders of MCA Puchong , who gained their day of fame in the mainstream media for staging a 5-minute 'historic' protest in front of the LDP office in Bandar Sunway, to chicken out this time.

To this bunch of seasoned and seasonal politicians, 5 minutes were already a lifetime.