Pix courtesy of TV Smith at zorro-zorro-unmasked.blogspot.com.
Written by YL Chong aka Desiderata
and Capt Yusof Ahmad aka Ancient Mariner
and the crowd went wild!
At around 11.20PM September 15, 2008 the air at the 30,000-capacity KELANA JAYA STADIUM was pregnant with expectancy. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibharim, just an hour ago referred to as the next Prime Minister of Malaysia by none other than compatriot Sdr Kamaruddin Jaafar, S-G of PAS, had been speaking now for 20 minutes, building up the spirits of the 15,000-strong truly multi-racial throng with spirited roundups of Pakatn Rakyat’s efforts post-March 8 — in SELANGOR, PERAK, PULAU PINANG, KEDAH and KELANTAN — to distinguish itself from the BN-ruled states. And DSAI finaly delivered in BM what the crowd had come to listen to. And the atmosphere burst into euphoria seldom tasted at a rally — there was hardly any police presence, change had arrived.
“We have the numbers! Tomorrow we will make public the MPs involved in coming over to enable PR to form the federal government…” AND THE PEOPLE ROARED THEIR EXCITEMENT WAVING MINIATURE FLAGS TO CELEBRATE “MALAYSIA DAY” (45th anniversary of Sabah and Sarawak (plus Singapore) joining Peninular States to enlarge the Malaysia family.
Before DSAI, other speakers included PP Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, PAS’ Kamaruddin Jaafar, Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim. Present were PKR President Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. For once I dispensed with the titles/honorifics because I felt verty socialist last night; further more, I felt trulyy Malaysian for the first time in a long, long time. You had to be present feel the air and spirit to capture truly what I mean … maybe when we celebrate the 46TH MALAYSIA DAY 365 hence!
The de facto PKR leader, newly-elected MP for Permatang Pauh, clearly represented a new dawn for MERDEKA — indepedence from OPPRESSION OF THE ISA, RISING CRIME and CORRUPT LEADERS OF THE BN GOVERNMENT.
DSAI then repeated the gist of the matter in English. The afternoon of the same day (Sept 15), leaders of PR component parties, namely PAS, DAP and PKR, had signed a letter to the PRIME MINISTER and duly delivered in peson by PR representatives, requesting for a meeting with Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Chiefly, two main requests:
** That all ISA detainees — including latest victims Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin and DAP MP-cum-Selangor Exco Teresa Kok — be released immediately;
** That the BN leader ensures a smooth transition and trasfer of power to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition as enough numbers, more than 30, of members of Parliament from BN will cross-over to the PR component parties on D-Day or soon after…
“When we form the new federal government, in a smooth and peaceful transition, the PR government will reduce the prices of fuel the next day, as promised!” — and the roar went up into the air still pregnant with excitement that CHANGE IS FINALLY WITHIN FIRM GRASP, and as DSAI stressed several times, it’s the POWER BEING RETURNED TO THE PEOPLE/RAKYAT.
Desi was happy to witness another memorable day in Malaysian history still in progress. Yes, Progress as in marching forward, not in reverse gear nearing the Abyss as had been happening the past five years, and still with us in sunset days under a BN government now still very much in denial.
posted by desiderata at 1:04 PM
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A New Dawn
At a 15,000 strong rally in the 30,000 seat capacity Kelana Jaya Stadium last night, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim claimed that he has the numbers to take over the government and that he has sent a letter to the beleaguered prime minister requesting a meeting to discuss a smooth handover of government. However, Pak Lah has since pooh-poohed the idea.
In a breaking news today, Malaysiakini reports, here, that at a packed press conference this afternoon, Anwar insisted that he has in excess of 31 government defectors. He calls on the PM not to implement emergency rule to stop MPs from going to Parliament or arrest (government) MPs or stop them from joining Pakatan Rakyat during the takeover.
We shall wait and see. As I have mentioned in an earlier blog, who givesashit about deadlines now as we look forward to a new dawn. And we are indeed living in interesting times.
Logged by The Ancient Mariner