Talkback Thursday: What do you think of public rallies as a means of public discourse?

After much debate in the press, the public rally at Dataran Merdeka is very likely to go ahead this weekend. But in recent months and years we have seen a good number of public rallies on all sorts of issues. In fact, the OccupyDataran crowd, small as it is, has been going on since October last year, imitating the OccupyWallStreet movement in the US.The students wanting free education have also jumped on the band wagon to try their luck to get their debts erased for no reason. Himpunan Hijau group who oppose the Lynas Rare Earth Plant is also planning a rally this Saturday, and have stated in the press that if the government promises to reject Lynas, they will cancel their rally. And of course there is Bersih 3.0 organised by Bersih 2.0 who is demanding for clean and fair elections. 

All these public rallies are of course a test on the new Peaceful Assembly Act but more to the point, are public rallies really an effective means of engaging in a discourse about the issues of the day? Sonia Zubeir and Umapagan Ampikaipakan hear out BFM listeners on this.