This crowd tonight at DAP's rally in Han Chiang is said to be 30,000-60,000 -strong. This, and more pictures are from the Malaysian Insider. According to audience members, Jeff Ooi provided the entertainment, singing and playing the guitar. I hope he's enjoying this! It's probably the only time he'll play to bigger crowds than Siti Nurhaliza and Mawi at BN rallies!
Dare we compare this to BN's Anwar-bashing rally just the night before? Thirty-five hundred people turned up at Rifle Range to listen to Badawi and Dr Koh.
I have to say I'm relieved the police did not try to stop the rally tonight. But was this a display of Makkal Sakthi (people's power)? Or will 1995 repeat itself and show a disconnect between crowds at rallies and votes in the ballot box?
Other sobering points... not many Malays in the crowd. Perhaps there would have been more if Anwar had been scheduled to speak? Tonight Wan Azizah was there instead. Or perhaps more likely, Malays still view a multi-racial party with deep suspicion, expecting a loss of power, property and rights if a Malay party was no longer calling the shots.
Neither is the young, urban voter someone the Opposition can count on. All their lives, they have known suppression of dissent. Let's face it, you could get smacked in the mouth for talking back to your parents. And blasted by water cannons if you speak up against the government. Young urbanites just want to be left alone and are not willing to put up with major change.
In about 32 hours, polling begins. I hope and pray all the blood, sweat and tears spent fighting for a better Malaysia will not be for naught.
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