biggest ceramah (so far) of opposition
Post on Mar.03, 2008
yeah, this gotta be one of the biggest ceramah DAP and PKR organised. the big guns were there! – anwar ibrahim, lim guan eng, karpal singh. oh, blogger jeff ooi was there too.
the ceramah was held on saturday, 1 of march, at the han chiang school indoor stadium and it was damn crowded! very full house inside the stadium and outside all round the stadium people were standing around (or finding some seats) too. anil netto, who were present and had blog on it, estimate the crowd to be close to 10,000 people! phew!
i was there as MAFREL’s election observer, with a few others observers as well. we were all wearing our MAFREL’s vest which has the words ‘MAFREL pemerhati pilihanraya’ on it. next time at ceramah/polling day, you can easily spot me (and my team members) with this beige coloured vest.
ok coming back to this big ceramah, chow kon yew, who is contesting the tanjung parliamentary seat, was the first to speak, followed by lim guan eng. guan eng’s speech was well received which received cheers now and then. the loudest (and most) cheer however were for anwar! wow! when he entered, the stadium, he was surrounded by so many of his supporters carrying the PKR flags. he even had bodyguards around him. they seemed quite rough though, pushing everybody who were in their way as though anwar is agong! (well he is one to them!). 
notice the picture here? you can see 2 of his bodyguard and the one on the right looks fierce eh? he was the one who glared at people who were in anwar’s way!
anwar spoke only 20 mins or so and left immediately after he spoke as he had to go to speak at two other places. next to speak was karpal singh, followed by a PKR candidate (didn’t catch his name), DAP’s lim chee tong (contesting in bkit bendera, i think, against BN chia kwang chye).
blogger taikoh jeff ooi then took over. he gave a very good speech. he spoke very well in perfect english and was very articulate. some of my MAFREL team members thought he was the best DAP speaker.
oh yeah most of the DAP speakers spoke in english and mandarin, alternating. some even throw in penang hokkien at times.
this is just a brief report as later (when i’m free) i might prepare a longer detailed report under MAFREL. as MAFREL election observers, we are encouraged to attend as many ceramah as we could as part of our observation mission. this was the first ceramah i attended under MAFREL. i hope to attend others if i’m not too tired.
UPDATED: read the report from malaysiakini.
Filed in election
March 3rd, 2008 on 8:56 AM
People came to listen…but the large crowd not necessarily meant support for the candidates.
I remember the humungous Lim Kit Siang ceramah just before the 1995 polls – Penang voters proceded to dump all but one DAP candidate.
But I do sense a difference this time. Its not strong support for the opposition, but a sense of unease with Barisan. “Beh Song” in Penang Hokkien..Accumulated broken promises over the last 4 years, increasing difficulty in making ends meet for lower income folks.
A sense that the non-Malays in Penang is being marginalised anyway by UMNO, even under a Barisan state government.
To top it all, the Joker Ah Koon telling voters “Vote Barisan – but I cannot tell you who the next CM will be. Just trust us”.
Its an insult to the intelligence of Penang voters. Ah Koon’s problem is, at the moment , he cannot be confident if his 3 choices for CM even get to be elected next Saturday. UMNO doesn’t like Teng Hock Nan due to bad blood all the way from his MPPP days.
Wong Chun Wai’s column in the Star sounded like a desperate plea to Chinese voters – not observations of a confident winning team.
My concern for the opposition right now is the lack of traction with Malay voters. The ARE many dissatisfied Malays, especially lower income and self-employed folks. Keadilan will likely get thousands of votes in each constituency, but not enough to win in any seat. At the rate things are going, Keadilan is going to be slaughtered this election by the lack of Malay support.
I’m helping them anyway…fight the good fight…but realistically, there’s no way to win….
March 3rd, 2008 on 6:51 PM
The storm is gathering, the tide is rising.
The wind of change is sweeping across the land.
Negaraku
Tanah tumpahnya darahku
Rakyat hidup, bersatu dan maju
Rahmat bahagia Tuhan kurniakan
Raja kita selamat bertakhta
Rahmat bahagia Tuhan kurniakan
Raja kita selamat bertakhta
March 3rd, 2008 on 11:49 PM
I was there. I wonder if the turnout will translate into votes.
As for me, I have already made up my mind. 4 yrs ago, I would have voted BN if I was in Malaysia at that time. Now no longer, as Badawi has failed to live up to the promises he made back then…