KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Academic Dr Meredith Weiss explained today that people gravitate towards replacing leaders outside of ballot boxes, such as through street protests, when they are denied a functioning democracy.

The US-based associate professor of political science also warned that the civil society itself would fail if it becomes increasingly partisan and compromises its cause.

“When citizens talk about ousting a leader ... not by parliamentary vote of confidence, or general elections but by non-institutional means, whether that be street protest or people’s parliament, that is a sign of absence or collapse of representative democracy,” Weiss said in a forum co-organised by the Islamic Renaissance Front and the University of Nottingham Malaysia.

“It is not, then, the case that activists are undermining democracy. This is not part of a democratic process in a representational form, but it means that they are not living in a functioning democracy in which they understand those structural mechanisms to work as they are intended to operate.”

Weiss, who is attached to University at Albany, State University of New York, said that both elected lawmakers and civil society are both necessary for democracy, but the two work in different spheres.

Last month, prominent lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan claimed the public was frustrated with Putrajaya’s handling of the country’s finances and the 1Malaysia Development Berhad controversy, and may express their discontent by taking to the streets.

In response, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said the police are considering arresting Ambiga for allegedly threatening to depose Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak through undemocratic means, which he described as detrimental to Malaysia’s parliamentary democratic system.

In the forum today, Ambiga hit back by saying that electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0, which will be holding its fourth Bersih rally end of this month, has consistently been working towards restoring democracy, unlike those who condone corruption and interference of the country’s institutions.

“I say to them, they are undermining parliamentary democracy, they have been guilty of undermining democracy for the longest time,” the former Bersih 2.0 co-chairman told its critics.

Bersih 2.0 has announced that it will hold a two-day rally dubbed “Bersih 4” in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu on August 29 and 30 calling for institutional reforms.

The last Bersih rally three years ago ahead of the 13^th general election was estimated by organisers to have drawn some 50,000 participants in the national capital, although government estimates placed the figure far lower.

The April 28, 2012 rally was marred by violence with riot police firing water cannons and tear gas into crowds of largely peaceful demonstrators although there were reported outbreaks of vandalism and fights between pro-government and opposition camps in the city.