I thought the crowd of thousands for this Semboyan Halilintar ke Putrajaya ceramah perdana in Seremban to commemorate the second anniversary of March 8, 2008 political tsunami would dissolve away when the full blasts of the rain came, but the indomitable spirit of several thousands who stood their ground despite heavy rain is a potent sign that the Pakatan Rakyat goal of Putrajaya in the next general election is within reach.
In recent weeks, Umno/Barisan especially through their owned and controlled mainstream media (msm) had tried to paint a picture of Pakatan Rakyat in disarray if not in disintegration, focusing particularly on Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) which has been reduced to 26 from 30 MPs two years ago.
Firstly, Umno/BN tried to foment trouble in Pakatan Rakyat saying that I should be Parliamentary Opposition Leader as the DAP with 28 MPs has now more MPs than PKR. Thanks but no, as DAP has decided that Anwar Ibrahim is the Parliamentary Opposition Leader heading the Pakatan Rakyat in Parliament until he becomes the new Prime Minister when Pakatan Rakyat captures Putrajaya in the next general elections.
Secondly, the Umno/BN launched a psychological warfare against PKR and Pakatan Rakyat because of the PKR cleansing process resulting in the reduction, whether by defection or expulsion, of its parliamentary strength.
In the first general elections contested by the DAP in 1969, DAP won 13 Parliamentary and 31 State Assembly seats. However, we suffered a high rate of attrition through inconstancy of political purpose and integrity, when our first-batch MPs and State Assemblymen could not withstand the two-pincer BN attack of intimidation, pressure and even blackmail on the one hand and a campaign of seduction with monetary and other material temptations and offers on the other.
In 1972, the then Prime Minister announced that the DAP “telah masuk kubur” while the Deputy Prime Minister predicted that the DAP was “moving towards the final phase of its existence”.
But for over four decades, the DAP had stood the test of time and today, it is the Umno/BN who are afraid of the DAP and Pakatan Rakyat and not the other way round.
PKR and Pakatan Rakyat can only come out stronger with greater credibility and mustering greater public confidence from a self-cleansing process resulting in a more united, cohesive and disciplined political movement to spearhead political change in Malaysia.
[Note: The massive crowd of several thousands stood their ground despite on-off downpour and Anwar Ibrahim, who spoke after me, mesmerized the people from all races, religion and ages in a speech lasting for over an hour.
These were my tweets during Anwar’s speech:
-
Massive crowd in Seremban 4ceramah perdana PR 2commemorate 2nd anniversary March B political tsunami Whole crowds stayed despite heavy rain
03/09/2010 10:01 PM -
Spirit 4reform of ppl of Sban n NS historic as many thousands stand their ground 2listen 2speeches by Anwar MustapaAli n me
03/09/2010 10:35 PM -
Programme in Sban Semboyan Halilintar ka Putrajaya is clearly on course
03/09/2010 10:37 PM -
Heavy rain cannot quench fires in bosoms of thousands now listening 2Anwar 4change n a new Malaysia Historic night
03/09/2010 10:41 PM -
Finally rain stopped Anwar still speaking on stage with attentive n supportive crowd of several thousands of all races
03/09/2010 10:59 PM -
Anwar speaking abt world ulama authority Yusof Qardawi supporting Anwar on Sodomy2 charge
03/09/2010 11:03 PM -
Anwar ends hr+ long speech Semboyan Halilintar kaPutrajaya unforgettable event pave way 13PRU
03/09/2010 11:29 PM
[Speech at the Negri Sembilan Pakatan Rakyat “March 8 political tsunami” second anniversary ceramah perdana at Oakland Commerce Square, Seremban on Tuesday, 9th March 2010 at 10 pm]
#1 by johnnypok on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 9:06 am
PR has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
MCA, MIC and Gerakan will support PR to win big and to bury BN 600 feet underground.
#2 by RGRaj on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 9:26 am
I was there too. All the races were united. It will be of no use if all this support is not turned into votes at GE13.
You can feel a sense of anger & frustration amongst the crowd, targetted at the BN gov. We hope for change 2 years from now.
#3 by son of perpaduan on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 10:12 am
Waiting 4another 2 years to come much easier rather than waited more than 50 years never change.
#4 by wanderer on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 10:19 am
The SPIRIT OF ONENESS lives in PR…Najib, eat your heart out!!!!
The desire and the mood for change of Federal gomen is ever growing in strength…let these sel-denial arrogant, egoistic specimens in the present administration dream on!
Nothing stays indefinately….
#5 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 10:47 am
Bravo, PR. I like what I read.
There is hope yet for Malaysia. Hang on to your passports folks and let us all rally to vote BN out.
#6 by seaturtle on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 10:53 am
I hope PR’s road show (ceramah) will come to Muar too as Muar people are PR’s strong supporters. We have 1 Parliament seat and 3 DUN seats here.
#7 by alwaysfair on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 11:04 am
Dear Uncle Kit, You are indeed an ICON of anti-corruption and have resolutely stood the tests of time from my father’s day (he is gone) till today. Today my whole family support you and your party because we trust you. The corrupted try to bait you to take over Anwar’s leadership, as though you are so stupid or greedy. You have also brought up your son so well. Any father would be proud to have such a son so clever and just. We always vote for DAP or the alternative PKR. Although I dare not brave the rains or the PDRM to hear your speeches I always access them on the you-tube.
Long Live LKS,LGE and Anwar.
Long live Pakatan coalition!!
#8 by baochingtian on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 11:07 am
Go Go Go, Keep Going! Good Job!
#9 by k1980 on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 11:12 am
Upon forming the federal govt after victory in the 13 GE, PR must enact an anti-hopping law which is retroactive so that all those PR elected reps who crossed over can be sentenced to a new leper colony to be set up in Pulau Jerejak.
#10 by dagen on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 11:28 am
Keep up the feel good factor. The whole country is yearning for change!
#11 by Godfather on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 11:46 am
Of course Putrajaya is within reach. That’s why they are running scared, and they are so confused as to whose demands they should pander to. It amazes those of us that this administration should even bother to listen to clowns like Ibrahim Katak, purportedly a champion for the Malays. Not having the guts to silence this Katak is the deathknell for BN.
Chengho the eunuch should take note, and pass this message to his boss in Putrajaya.
#12 by Black Arrow on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 12:00 pm
BN thought that the defections will weaken PKR. Well, that which does not kill you will only make you stronger.
PKR has emerged stronger after the clean-up process and this is good. Those who are in Pakatan Rakyat for their own self-interests have no place in Pakatan.
The Pakatan ship is on full course. Full steam ahead, everyone. The battle has only just begun!
#13 by frankyapp on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 12:15 pm
Malaysian of various races and religions,were not afraid of the tough and evil things the Japanese did to us during their occupation in the 2nd world war. Instead we strongly resisted them and with the help of the commonwealth countries we defeated them.Similarly,the people of malaysia now are again under threat and evil doing ,not by the Japanese but by Umno/Bn. I think no matter what this evil Umno/Bn is doing against us the rakyat,the resistance is getting stronger and stronger to over throw them (Umno/Bn) ,this time,not through foreigners but through our very own Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
#14 by Bigjoe on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 12:39 pm
I keep saying that Negeri Sembilan will fall to PR and so will Terengganu. You add Perak and more seats from MCA in Johor and Pahang, a good number in Sabah and a few more from Sarawak, and PR will end up in Putrajaya. Even if Kedah has some set backs, it won’t change the equation.
The road to Putrajaya is very much real for PR..
#15 by wanderer on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 12:49 pm
Godfather
admiral chengho, he has no balls la…that is why he is crowned with the title, “Eunuch”
He may need to join sleepy head to the last frontier land!
#16 by bigcat on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 1:02 pm
yes Uncle Lim, Really smart of you to decline the Opposition post. umNO just want to set a bait and if DAP accept it they will say the chinese will take over the country!
#17 by chengho on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 2:14 pm
AGI;
Tossed into Alice’s Wonderland on 8 March 2008 by a fluke of fate, Anwar’s vehicle for his ride to power has now come loose, becoming a serious liability to its partners two years after the great surprise at the polls that brought in the absurdity.
It’s been departure time for scores of party members the past one month, with former party secretary-general, Salehuddin Hashim, leading the way and in his train two MPs have quit the party, another sacked and several more adrift.
While many from some parts of the world placed much faith in Anwar Ibrahim and the promises he made for reform, the facts say his outfit had been overwhelmed by his secretaries who struggled for influence among themselves, the losers leaving the party to publicly scorn Anwar and his favorites.
There was never a chance for the party to build a base for coherence and cohesion so it can survive the violence of a Punch and Judy puppet show.
The PKR was doomed from birth, riding piggyback on the Pas into the 1990 general elections and coming to an abrupt halt in 2004. It was wiped out at the polls, leaving Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah, as the sole survivor in Parliament, winning as caretaker of Anwar’s parliamentary base, Permatang Pauh in Penang.
The pendulum swung to an extreme in the 8 March 2008 general elections. Seeing Umno and the Barisan Nasional (BN) were unable to remove Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from the helm, the people moved to vote against Badawi, denying the BN the two-third majority.
With the Opposition only 30 less than the BN in Parliament, Anwar became inspired to apply haste in politics and declared he had enough BN lawmakers willing to cross court and join the Pakatan to form the new government on September 16, 2008 .
It failed and it backfired, Anwar self-bashed to a pulp.
It was impossible for the PKR to recover since. Anwar and the Opposition could only hope for Najib Tun Razak to slump before he could succeed Badawi.
Najib made it. Then he moved swiftly to turn the tables on Anwar and the Pakatan. He recovered the state of Perak and in a series of offensives he left the Pakatan in distress in Selangor and Penang.
In Kedah the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) is often sick and has not delivered anything worth a mention in the two years he has been chief executive.
In Kelantan the stoic old survivor, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, has finally gotten himself linked to a possible set of graft charges involving his son-in-law whom he appointed as the CEO of a state company he chaired himself.
In Penang Lim Guan Eng as Chief Minister has been alleged to have made a regulation giving him the power to withdraw contracts given out by the state or state agency, without having to give any reason for his actions.
In other words, he was said to have taken to himself extraordinary powers for someone demanding accountability and transparency in government.
The opposition has also been showing gross incompetence, lack of experience and silly arrogance. Some could not handle the simple taste of minimal power.
In many places it has been a lark the likes of which we have never seen or heard before – a powershoku that had come in with the 8 March 2008 electoral tsunami bringing to Malaysia a real life staging of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, featuring some who had done nothing more than ferrying mineral water from the shops to the election hot-tents and were amply rewarded for that.
When some councilors at the district and municipal levels were dropped there was the news in several online newspapers that one of these had ingested a weed-killer. The news item was withdrawn many hours later.
The truth is bizarre. The Opposition had been as surprised as anyone else with the 8 March 2008 election results and the PKR and the DAP were not prepared to run state governments and to place selected members as councilors at district and municipal levels.
Why would the DAP and PKR now want town council elections is yet another kinky curio when the DAP’s Magister, Lim Kit Siang, had recently wrote against the proposal, possibly because the party and its strange sidekick, PKR, do not have cadre outfits to fill in the positions with people who know what to do.
Other than the socialists in the PKR, hardly any of the party members had been in touch with farmers’, smallholders’ or fishermen’s associations, meaning they have no idea of the tensions faced by these sectors and to exploit the tensions.
The same is partially true for the Pas, which is probably why the party failed to hold the rural electorates in many states.
It would now become pertinent to ask who among the members of the PKR (other than the socialists) and the Pas have been keeping touch with workers’ unions in the urban?
What, therefore, is the Pakatan about other than to make Anwar Ibrahim the boss over Putrajaya? Why would we want to do that?
If it is about Reformasi, we need to ask what have they done in that direction the past two years other than talk in road-shows and in the coffee-shops?
If it is about the chance to incur a two-party system we have to know at which point had that been a viable option since 8 March 2008?
Is Anwar managerially substantial or is he the same now as he had been as a minister and Umno leader, with many of his boys formng a cackle of menacing husbanded power who misbehaved while pretending to be the champions of Islam.
It’s bottoms up! There will have to be shifts of the paradigms and of the chimes for Malaysia to progress in the processes of change, modernization, development and integration. In the meantime, it is Najib who is widely perceived as doing very well as a leader.
#18 by Chen Man Hin on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 3:09 pm
The rally that stamped PR as a party of the people, and is growing from strength to strength
Last night’s public rally in Seremban to mark the anniversary of 8/3/08 was a tremendous success. It was not the biggest of rallies but it was the best of rallies. The speakers rose to the occasion and gave inspiring speeches. The crowd was eager, responsive with frequent clapping and were mesmerisied as the speakers voiced out their innermost desires and frustrations against Umno and Barisan. The skies were in sympathy and cried with the people. First there was a drizzle, but the crowd stayed. The drizzle became a rain, but the crowd stayed back to listen. The rain became a deluge and yet the crowd did not move away. They were captured by the magic of the moment. It was more important to listen and support the calls for justice and fair play. The crowd which refused to disperse despite an inclement weather was sending a message to Umno and Barisan, which was — they fully supported Pakatan Rakyat and what they are telling the people. Drenched in rain and shivering with cold, the people in the crowd are staying back to show their undivided support for Pakatan Rakyat, and they want PR to lead the road to Putrajaya for unity, democracy and justice.
#19 by Winston on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 4:58 pm
“Drenched in rain and shivering with cold, the people in the crowd are staying back to show their undivided support for Pakatan Rakyat, and they want PR to lead the road to Putrajaya for unity, democracy and justice.” – Chen Man Hin
This shows the staying power of the people and the PR. Unshakable!
Despite the many ploys of the BN to shake the faith of the people in the PR, they are not shaken – not one bit!
The people want change – change that they can believe in – in American parlance!
Not the cock & bull stories of the 1Malaysia kind!
#20 by undertaker888 on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 9:09 pm
semboyan angkatan pakatan rakyat
di-samudera raya
mempertahankan ibu pertiwi
dari umno dan bn
dari barat sampai ke timur
itulah pantai rakyat
perwira dan satria
angkatan pakatan rakyat…
#21 by tanjong8 on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 - 10:39 pm
Remember Chengho was a eunuch during the 14th century.
Are there no eunuchs in this age ?
#22 by monsterball on Thursday, 11 March 2010 - 2:19 am
hahahahahahaha…I have never seen Chengho write so much nonsense… in one message.
Somehow…the movie.. Alice In Wonderland inspired him like our very own… mad hatter.
#23 by DCLXVI on Thursday, 11 March 2010 - 3:19 am
chengho: “Tossed into Alice’s Wonderland on 8 March 2008 by a fluke of fate, Anwar’s vehicle for his ride to power has now come loose, becoming a serious liability to its partners two years after the great surprise at the polls that brought in the absurdity.”
The serious gains made by Pakatan Rakyat in GE12 was not regarded by Umno-BN as some imaginary wonderland fairy tale story which is why Umno-BN still considers Anwar and Pakatan Rakyat as a serious political threat to this day…
chengho: “It’s been departure time for scores of party members the past one month, with former party secretary-general, Salehuddin Hashim, leading the way and in his train two MPs have quit the party, another sacked and several more adrift.”
Party members may have left PKR, but Umno’s allies in BN, MCA and PPP are looking at leadership crisis. What’s worse in the rakyat’s eyes; a party with lesser members, or a party with perpetual leadership problems?
chengho: “While many from some parts of the world placed much faith in Anwar Ibrahim and the promises he made for reform, the facts say his outfit had been overwhelmed by his secretaries who struggled for influence among themselves, the losers leaving the party to publicly scorn Anwar and his favorites.”
And those selfish losers have either joined or aligned themselves with Umno-BN. And doesn’t that mean more losers for Umno-BN?
chengho: “There was never a chance for the party to build a base for coherence and cohesion so it can survive the violence of a Punch and Judy puppet show.”
With more and more of those rotten bad apples gone, it may even survive the violence of a Mike Tyson boxing match…
chengho: “The PKR was doomed from birth, riding piggyback on the Pas into the 1990 general elections and coming to an abrupt halt in 2004. It was wiped out at the polls, leaving Anwar’s wife, Wan Azizah, as the sole survivor in Parliament, winning as caretaker of Anwar’s parliamentary base, Permatang Pauh in Penang.”
GE11 was the time when the rakyat had succumbed Pak Lah’s ‘Mr.Nice’ image, but it turns out that most of the others in Umno-BN were not that nice. As a result, the rakyat had already known better by GE12…
chengho: “The pendulum swung to an extreme in the 8 March 2008 general elections. Seeing Umno and the Barisan Nasional (BN) were unable to remove Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from the helm, the people moved to vote against Badawi, denying the BN the two-third majority.”
Actually, Pak Lah was not voted out as he retained his seat in GE12. It was most of the other ‘not-so-nice’ folks in Umno-BN who were voted out by the rakyat…
chengho: “With the Opposition only 30 less than the BN in Parliament, Anwar became inspired to apply haste in politics and declared he had enough BN lawmakers willing to cross court and join the Pakatan to form the new government on September 16, 2008 .”
Well, isn’t that Pakatan Rakyat’s goal in the first place?
chengho: “It failed and it backfired, Anwar self-bashed to a pulp.”
Yes, he tried, and in return, he was given ‘Sodomy 2’ for it…
chengho: “It was impossible for the PKR to recover since. Anwar and the Opposition could only hope for Najib Tun Razak to slump before he could succeed Badawi.”
Million ringgit worth of advice from APCO Worldwide seems to have done wonders for Najib…
chengho: “Najib made it. Then he moved swiftly to turn the tables on Anwar and the Pakatan. He recovered the state of Perak and in a series of offensives he left the Pakatan in distress in Selangor and Penang.”
Najib has the might of the federal government machinery behind him to do his bidding against Pakatan Rakyat governed states…
chengho: “In Kedah the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) is often sick and has not delivered anything worth a mention in the two years he has been chief executive.”
Strangely, the Kedahan people are not pressuring for the replacement of this MB…
chengho: “In Kelantan the stoic old survivor, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, has finally gotten himself linked to a possible set of graft charges involving his son-in-law whom he appointed as the CEO of a state company he chaired himself.”
Umno’s disciplinary board had found Pak Lah’s son in-law guilty of money politics, but he still gets to be elected the party’s youth leader…
chengho: “In Penang Lim Guan Eng as Chief Minister has been alleged to have made a regulation giving him the power to withdraw contracts given out by the state or state agency, without having to give any reason for his actions.”
Anyway, he did find out about a supposed political ally who was trying to get ‘side income’ from a Penang state government tender…
chengho: “In other words, he was said to have taken to himself extraordinary powers for someone demanding accountability and transparency in government.”
When he showed courtesy to a political ally to select a new Penang DCM1, his political foes chided him for not having power and total control of the state administration as a CM.
When he exercised his power as a CM to reject a bid by a measly RM2 company for a large Penang state government tender in the interest of accountability and transparency, a supposed political ally, who has personal interest in that RM2 company, stabbed the CM in the back, accusing him, among other things, of being a dictator.
Don’t show power, get criticised. Show power, also get criticised. How lah?
chengho: “The opposition has also been showing gross incompetence, lack of experience and silly arrogance. Some could not handle the simple taste of minimal power.”
Nobody said that Pakatan Rakyat is perfect. After all, Umno-BN is not perfect either…
chengho: “In many places it has been a lark the likes of which we have never seen or heard before – a powershoku that had come in with the 8 March 2008 electoral tsunami bringing to Malaysia a real life staging of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, featuring some who had done nothing more than ferrying mineral water from the shops to the election hot-tents and were amply rewarded for that.”
Can’t really blame the people for trying to quench their thirst for change in government…
chengho: “When some councilors at the district and municipal levels were dropped there was the news in several online newspapers that one of these had ingested a weed-killer. The news item was withdrawn many hours later.”
Should politicians and their parties always be blamed when somebody gets too emotional with fatal consequences?
chengho: “The truth is bizarre. The Opposition had been as surprised as anyone else with the 8 March 2008 election results and the PKR and the DAP were not prepared to run state governments and to place selected members as councilors at district and municipal levels.”
The truth is that two years after GE12, Pakatan Rakyat is still running state & local governments…
chengho: “Why would the DAP and PKR now want town council elections is yet another kinky curio when the DAP’s Magister, Lim Kit Siang, had recently wrote against the proposal, possibly because the party and its strange sidekick, PKR, do not have cadre outfits to fill in the positions with people who know what to do.”
Pakatan Rakyat can’t be faulted if it wants to bring back democracy to local government level in cautious manner…
chengho: “Other than the socialists in the PKR, hardly any of the party members had been in touch with farmers’, smallholders’ or fishermen’s associations, meaning they have no idea of the tensions faced by these sectors and to exploit the tensions.”
Does this mean that all of PKR members should be socialists?
chengho: “The same is partially true for the Pas, which is probably why the party failed to hold the rural electorates in many states.”
Kedah and Kelantan have numerous rural constituents and PAS leads Pakatan Rakyat in governing those states…
chengho: “It would now become pertinent to ask who among the members of the PKR (other than the socialists) and the Pas have been keeping touch with workers’ unions in the urban?”
Now, the whole of Pakatan Rakyat have to be socialists too?
chengho: “What, therefore, is the Pakatan about other than to make Anwar Ibrahim the boss over Putrajaya? Why would we want to do that?”
It is the consensus of the Pakatan Rakyat leaders to chose Anwar as their overall boss. After all, why would Najib appoint certain people who were not voted in by the people, like Koh Tsu Koon, to his cabinet?
chengho: “If it is about Reformasi, we need to ask what have they done in that direction the past two years other than talk in road-shows and in the coffee-shops?”
Probably the changes in Pakatan Rakyat governed states are too subtle for some people to notice. It should be more noticeable if Pakatan Rakyat takes over the federal government…
chengho: “If it is about the chance to incur a two-party system we have to know at which point had that been a viable option since 8 March 2008?”
Who knows, this 2-party system may have evolved by the time of the GE13…
chengho: “Is Anwar managerially substantial or is he the same now as he had been as a minister and Umno leader, with many of his boys formng a cackle of menacing husbanded power who misbehaved while pretending to be the champions of Islam.”
And what about Najib and his 1Malaysia campaign while a number of his ‘rakan seperjuangan’ unwittingly expose themselves with racist remarks?
chengho: “It’s bottoms up! There will have to be shifts of the paradigms and of the chimes for Malaysia to progress in the processes of change, modernization, development and integration. In the meantime, it is Najib who is widely perceived as doing very well as a leader.”
Yes, it may be bottoms up, but with no sign of penetration, turning ‘Sodomy 2’ into a farce. Najib’s 1Malaysia sloganeering & cries try to drown out the accusations of scandals and corruptions. For whom the bell tolls?
#24 by undertaker888 on Thursday, 11 March 2010 - 7:53 am
this one liner chengho finally writes storybook. His/her paymaster must be up to his/her neck for not getting their money’s worth. So chop chop chengho. Or else you won’t get paid anymore. Start whoring now.