On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The Pakatan Rakyat(People's Alliance) had a major political rally tonight; as it is the eve of polling day tommorow for the Sarawak Elections 2011. Giving no free gifts and having no cute singers to grace the stage but relying purely on politicians highlighting political agendas; they impressively pulled in a monstrous crowd of about 30 000 people. A friend had this to say..."I bet BN is frustrated that they have to pay alot of money and monkey with dubious gimmicks like 'lucky draws' to get their small crowd while PKR impressively draw out thousands of people without promising them gifts. They even get them to part with their money willingly in support of the party when they ask for campaign contributions from the crowd.
It was obvious that I wasn't the only one mesmerized at the sights of the flags waving and the crowd all cheering "Ubah! Ubah! Ubah!" when the police showed up as early as 8.00pm with the intent to stop the gathering. It was not the first incident aroused by an obviously jealous and fearful opponent. Earlier in the day Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan of Bersih 2.0(The Coalition For Free and Fair Election) was also denied entry into Sarawak.
Grabbing the flags, the police who jumped up on stage uninvited tried to usher Chong Siew Chiang off the stage and end the rally but they were outnumbered by a flurry of party supporters who also rushed up on stage to keep the flags flying and to defend the Chong Siew Chiang by any means.
This resulted in a short tussle and I actually saw a glimpse of confusion in a few of the policemen faces who were obviously caught unprepared by how passionate and willing everyone was in keeping the flag flying high.Those off the stage cheered "UBAH! UBAH!" ever louder! Chong Siew Chiang immediately asked everyone to calm. He then politely asked what do the police officers want? A representative of the police said that the rally had to be stopped.The speaker posed the request to the people saying, "The police wants us to stop tonight..do you people want to stop?" The crowd shouted "No!" The speaker then said..."Well, we do not hurt these policemen, they are only working...doing their job,doing what BN has asked them to do to stop us gathering here!" The crowd went "Boo" Then as quickly as they appeared...the policemen shamefully disappeared.For a moment,I stood at awe, marveling at how stupid BN can be to provide free entertainment and to further demonstrate their capability at abusing power, effectively firing enthusiasm and support for me to vote for their rival political party. The night went on smoothly from there...first up was Tony Pua.
As he began to talk it also began to rain but nobody ran off...umbrellas came out but cheers were as loud if not louder.Then they went on to some light entertainment with Violet Yong as she sang various improvised songs about how Taib is a fool and should go while the crowd sang after her...Christina Chiew also arrived on stage after.
A thunderous "Karpal!Karpal!Karpal!" preludes to the arrival of one of the highlight of the night, Karpal Singh. He arrive with a huge smile. Karpal was followed by Sim Kwan Yang,See Chew How, Chong Chieng Jen, Nurul Izzah binti Anwar and Nga Khor Ming respectively.
I smiled tonite.My country may actually change...wait...let me put that more correctly...I may actually have a country soon. Seeing how BN treats the Chinese and Indians like the 'pendatang' , stamp a book I consider sacred and various other atrocities...I really don't feel like I belong to a country. All the whiles the Malays are too short charged while only cronies prosper...'Ubah!' means change...
