An Evening in Brickfields

I left the office right after Maghrib prayers. I've decided to attend a ceramah tonight, my first in this election. I had earlier wanted to go to the one in Wangsa Maju where Wee Choo Keong is contesting but after more than half an hour decided to forego the plan as I could not locate Section 1 of Wangsa Maju. After driving around Kg Baru without finding any ceramah I decided to head home.

Along the way, I remembered that Nurul Izzah have a ceramah in Brickfields starting at 10:30pm. This could be interesting, I thought. As I turned into the Brickfields area from Jalan Bangsar, I could see cars parked along the road. I found a slot and decided to park my car and take a walk to the scheduled area which was about 1 km away. As I approached the area, the road started being clogged with cars. A lot of people were heading towards the same area. Mostly Indians but quite a significant number of Chinese and Malays too.

As I reached the area, a parking lot, I can see a large group listening to someone giving a speech. An Indian guy who I do not recognize. The sound system is bad. Those standing at the back can hardly hear a thing. The car park is full of people. I do not know how to estimate the number, maybe 500-600, 80% Indians while the balance equally spread between Chinese and Malays.

I remained at the entrance as there is hardly any space for me to move forward. It was then that I saw Raja Petra of Malaysia-Today and his wife. He and a few Chinese ladies were selling Barisan Rakyat posters at RM1 each. Raja Petra was also signing the posters. I bought some posters but did not ask Pete to sign them.

Meanwhile, Nurul Izzah went up to deliver her speech. Again, I could hardly hear her. After that it was Wee Choo Keong's turn to speak. His rendition of correct, correct, correct, drew applause from the crowd. I saw Gobind Deo left the stage after a while. Apparently he was there to lend support to Nurul though he is contesting in Puchong (I think).
Failing to hear the speeches, I decided to strike conversations with the people around me. There was an Indian guy who told me that he was an MIC and Gerakan member but decided to support opposition this time around. Meanwhile I saw and heard people congratulating Raja Petra for his good speech. He must have spoken before I arrived. Maybe he was invited to speak by virtue of him being an old resident of the area.

At about 11:20pm Anwar arrived. He was welcomed by an Indian drums group and shouts of Reformasi. He is definitely still a popular figure. Whether all the show of support will translate into votes is anybody's guess but to say that he is "irrelevant" and a "spent force" can be detrimental to the party saying it.

As the crowd quiet down to hear what Anwar was trying to say, I decided to leave so that I will not be caught in the jam when everybody leaves later. Its another 1 km walk. I reached home at a quarter past midnight. I was happy to see the crowd but I was unable to hear what the speakers were saying. I guess at this point in time, it does not make any difference what they were saying. I have already made up my mind.