Bukit Gantang | On Nizar's trails ...Part 3

U P D A T E

Word just came in from 2 sources Tues 7th April, 2009 12:48hrs:

At Air Kuning Police fired tear gas an hour ago. Incident started when PAS supporters purportedly came over to BN supporters to wish last words before voting when Police started the tear gas "fire".

While taking a breather at Olden Days Kopitiam, in Taiping, a Kelantan guy came over and intimated the chemical gun "fire" by the Police have started. The van they were travelling in pulled away and drove off.

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ON Monday evening, 6th March April we went down to Kuala Sepetang about 6pm to catch some dinner and then on hoping to catch Nizar. Bumped into a couple of Al Jazeera guys. No such luck with Nizar. At about 8.00pm Teresa Kok did the Ceramah, mostly in Mandarin and as I approached, she did a sprinkling of Bahasa for the few Malay speaking voters.

Moving on, we reached Kota where there was a crowd, a thin crowd at a BN Ceramah site, as we were told. As we approached there was no speaker and loud dance music blared through the air. On stage, a young dancer was widdling wiggling her butt to the amusement of the audience.

Exasperated, we stopped by a coffe shop, had some Kopi-O Kau. A middle aged Indian guy was grumbling. He had in his arm a daughter, who he said could not sleep.

We moaned and sighed - we heard Nizar was somewhere, but we pulled a blank!

Bukit Gantang | On Nizar's trails ...Part 2

Still on Nizar's trails March 5th and we chanced on a PKR Official, Lee, who led us through an Oil Palm Estate into a narrower kampung road that finally turned out to be Matang Gelugor. There, instead of Nizar, it was Anwar Ibrahim.

Matang Gelugor appeared a very small village that was not small to Anwar Ibrahim in the quest for Nizar's win and ultimately, PR's victory! Anwar was in his articulate self, able to speak to any audience, be it an international conference or a rural village.

Nizar was supposed to be here we thought but did it matter, as Nizar himselft might be in some remote kampung deep in the kampungs of the rural Malay folks.

The scent on Nizar's trails is still fresh but he is still not to be found. The message to pursue a future of Change still rang out true among the rural folks: the need for committed, honest leaders to enhance equitable wealth distribution.

With PR's full committment for Change, does it matter if it was Nizar or Anwar there? We should now be used to the idea that the PR's leader, could well be Nizar when it matters! And Nizar now merged into Anwar. And Nizar should merge into another and that other to someone else. But the struggle for Change cannot and will not be stopped.

[This post was done with the facilities and goodwill of YB Nga Kor Ming MP Taiping and ADUN Pokok Assam, at Pusat Perkhidmatan Ahli Parliment Taping and Pokok Assam]

Bukit Ganting | On Nizar's Trail ...

A PR Worker helps a "Change" Ceramah enthusiast!

Arrived Selambau on 3rd April, made our way to Kedah and found a Press Conference in Sungai Lalang where Nasution gave a briefing of Ceramah venues with Tian Chua.

The object was Nizar. I wanted to track Nizar's Ceramah but no firm details could be found.

In the evening, there was news that Nizar might be in Changkit Jering. There a couple of Ceramahs on the way and still there was no news of where Nizar was. We ended up at the first Ceramah we found. It was a PAS Ceramah. The road was lined with cars both sides and the crowd milled round a PAS center, near which was a small Makan Place.

The Ceramah in Malay reiterated PR's gain in the 10 months: not about physical development, more of beyond and extra ethnicity, cultural and religious understanding. That no one had a sole right to religion and God---and this was from a "PAS for All" dimension.

The crowd of listeners slowly swelled. The listeners were mostly Malay Muslims. Just slightly later, a Chinese girl aged somewhat in the 30's came alone, unaccompanied and mingled with the crowd to listen. In no time a few Malay males approached her and offered help and she was elated at being welcome and not wolf-whistled and stared as she would had been some few years ago. More young non-Malay listeners came later and were similarly welcomed.

There was plenty of goodwill - real spontaneous goodwill; the feeling was one of elation. It was quite a groundbreaking experience for a Sarawakian like me. I'd never seen this in Kuching or anywhere in Sarawak. There's an open sense of ease, acceptance and belonging - you are not unclean, different or infidel.

With this sense of elation, Malaysia would be well on the way to a greening ... without the present BN Government.

But I still could not find Nizar. There were pictures, postures and wares peddled with Nizar's picture: he was no where! It was as if he didn't need to be there himself! But he was there. The "Change" cause he is spreading for PR is there. And it was tingling in the air.