【明報專訊】THE July 1 mass demonstration this year attracted the third lowest turnout ever. The Civil Human Rights Front, which organised the march, and some pan-democrats have spoken with one voice, attributing the poor turnout to citizens' fatigue brought on by too many political activities recently, adding that there are no burning issues at the moment that would have galvanised citizens into taking to the streets. All this might explain, or partly explain, the poor turnout. However, as such theories are not supported by any solid evidence or statistics, we can only take them with a pinch of salt. Furthermore, both the Civil Human Rights Front and society as a whole have to answer one question: Were there any other reasons that caused the sharp decline in participation? Over the past two years, the pan-democrats have taken a radical approach to the constitutional reform issue. They even started the illegal Occupy movement. Has this scared off citizens who are moderate and pragmatic, making them unwilling to join this year's march? This is something worthy of our discussion.