If there was any speculation that a dip in support for Pakatan Rakyat was prevalent in Kedah, it was not obvious in last night’s fund raising dinner in Alor Setar.
The Dewan Bandaraya hall in the heart of town was so packed that the two tables for journalists had to be pushed to the far end of the room, where listening to the speakers became a daunting task.
The 1,000-plus crowd waited mostly for Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (left), who had a tight schedule in Penang earlier, rushing from the Malay kampung of Tanjung Tokong, to Alor Setar, where he proceeded after 10pm to a ceramah in Kangar, Perlis.
The PKR supremo was in his usual high spirits and humorous mood, and was greeted with a standing ovation from the ethnically-mixed crowd, when he arrived at about 9pm, an hour late.
He was accompanied by PKR big wigs like vice-president Chua Jui Meng, Perak deputy chief and Gopeng MP Lee Boon Chye and Penang Deputy Chief Minister I and PKR state chief Mansor Othman.
Although other leaders like Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abu Bakar (above, in white shirt), PKR Kedah deputy youth chief Gooi Hsiao Leung, and national vice-president N Surendran spoke, no one was really attentive until Anwar got on stage.
By then, the crowd, mostly middle-aged and elderly, and half of them from the Chinese community, turned blissfully silent and responded to Anwar’s comments and jokes with lots of laughter, cheers and thunderous claps.
Second time
The Permatang Pauh MP, who is facing sodomy charges for the second time in court, took on a current sex video allegation by entertaining the crowd with “the incredibility of it”.
“If possible, Umno wants to attack me from the hairs on my head to my toes,” he quipped.
“Just now when I was entering the hall, I saw people looking at my face, they seem to say ‘it’s not that ugly (tak muka monyok pun),” he joked.
“Then they look at my tummy – (I noticed) that both men and women did that – and they seem to say ‘tak besar pun perut’ (his tummy is not big at all),” he added, drawing tons of laughter from the crowd.
He was referring to a sex video which allegedly portrayed him in a sexual romp with an oriental looking woman in a dinghy hotel room.
Then he launched into a string of attacks against his former party where he was previously made deputy prime minister for 16 years, saying that “slander and a culture of pornography is Umno’s weapon against its opponents”.
“They have nothing substantive to offer – neither quality nor track record. All they can offer is sex, sex, sex…,” he chided, drawing more laughter from the crowd.
However, despite all these allegations against him, Anwar said he was confident in his struggle in Pakatan and as a Muslim.
But the people, too, must have the wisdom, he added, although some were fools and yet others, allowed themselves to be fooled, who were free and yet preferred to be slaves.
He mesmerised the crowd by quoting Algerian, Muslim and Chinese scholars on the topic of virtue, saying it was an important aspect of change as in reformasi.
“If you have virtue, you control yourself, you have your family. You have virtue, you have a community, you have NO virtue, you control humanity,” he quoted the 551 BC Chinese philosopher Confucious.
Without an inner strength or virtue of the ordinary folks, he added, it would be impossible to see political changes in the Pakatan states, or to see Azizan, who is also Kedah PAS commissioner, become head of state.
Ordinary folks
By ordinary folks, he meant the junior religious teachers, hawkers, Chinese businessmen, Indians in the estates, and Malay fishermen.
“It’s not the big corporations (that support us) but I hear that they are already beginning to support us quietly…this is a good change,” he said, smiling.
In Pakatan governments, Anwar assured, the chief minister or menteri besar can be questioned if there were any act of improprieties in governance.
Likewise, party officials can be dropped from the state executive line-up or leadership positions should they be found guilty of cheating.
“I have told my friends in Pakatan, never take things for granted. If you want to be with this party, you lead and participate according to the rules of the game,” he exclaimed, to much cheering from the crowd.
“…and during election, do not give ultimatums, and do not demand for something unreasonable”.
Meanwhile, Anwar condemned the BN has having nothing substantive to offer accept lies and slander against the Opposition.
Good governance
He said a government that wants to present itself as an alternative to the people has to show a good record of governance.
“For us in Pakatan, it is the orange book (buku jingga) to eradicate corruption as it is cancer of society.
“What can Umno show? It can show nothing substantive but slandering of others and price hike everywhere,” he added.
On his visit to Tanjung Tokong, Anwar urged the Penang government to find ways to resolve the woes of the kampung folks residing in the area, who are suffering from over development and possible evictions.
These issues, he added, are being used and manipulated by certain quarters, to cast aspersions on the leadership of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (left) and the Pakatan state government.
“We cannot just say federal, federal, federal (who is responsible for it)…it is not enough,” he stressed.
“We know that the development is a federal project, where eventually the Malays are marginalised and there are no more allocation to develop Malay areas in Penang,” he said, referring to the community’s diminishing land ownership on only four percent within the state.
However, he urged the Malay community to understand that they were not the only who were suffering the ills of development.
“Not all Chinese are towkays, look at Indians suffering, too,” he said.
“But I want to make clear that we cannot go forward or be successful in the name of Pakatan Rakyat if any one community feels there are poor or marginalised,” he added.
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