Huge crowd at Anwar rally but no announcement of JB candidate

Attendance at the much heralded PKR ceramah that was being held deep within the Umno bastion of Kampung Melayu Majidee in Johor Baru this evening swelled to 5,000 well before Pakatan Rakyat chief campaigner Anwar Ibrahim arrived at 11.15pm.

Early arrivals had to endure several distractions such as an unusually heavy police presence together with Johor Baru municipality officials who did not confine themselves to the usual concerns with security, traffic and cleanliness at the site of the ceramah, which was a soccer field in front of a community hall.

They had also to shut out the music that blared from a loudspeaker located on one side of the field, positioned there by people with the obvious intention of making it difficult for the crowd at the ceramah to listen to the speeches.

But listen and cheer they did, to the better speakers of the evening in PKR vice-president Tian Chua and secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution who keyed up the crowd by pouring scorn on the standard repertoire of BN misdeeds.

Tian Chua gave an impressive defence of himself against the sedition charge he is presently saddled with over comments he was alleged to have made on the intrusion at Lahad Datu by an armed group dispatched by the Sulu sultan.

“There was never any time when I said anything bad about our security forces,” said Tian Chua, who was charged last week with sedition at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

“In all the 15 years of my involvement with the reformasi movement when I was hauled up and sometimes roughed up by the cops, I have not said anything to demean them,” he said.

No announcement of JB candidate

When Anwar arrived from a ceramah at Simpang Renggam, the crowd had grown to about 8,000 people. Within a quarter hour of his start at 11.25pm, it swelled to the 10,000 that was anticipated by the organisers.

Contrary to expectations, he did not announce the PKR candidate for the Johor Bahru parliamentary seat because the expected nominee, General (Ret) Md Hashim Hussein was unable to attend because of a bout of food poisoning.

It was 15 minutes past midnight when Anwar stopped, with the police contingent’s chief prompting the organisers that it was past the permitted time.

Mohd Salleh Ahmad, the acting deputy chief for the PKR Johor Baru division, who must have been pleased at the crowd size because of the brief period he had to organise the event, passed the word to Anwar who then wound up his speech with the usual cry “Lawan tetap lawan” (We must fight to the end).



Malaysiakini