That Anwar Ibrahim’s crowd-pulling power is augmented by restrictions placed on it was vividly demonstrated yesterday in Paya Besar, Kedah - one of six stops on a hectic campaign swing through Penang and Kedah.
Until his arrival an hour before dusk at the Dewan Kaatu Raja in a middle-class housing estate in this state ward which lies in the parliamentary constituency of Padang Serai, only a third of the 500 plastic chairs laid out in the hall were occupied.
But when the PKR supremo arrived to fanfare, heralded by the revving machines of 30 party flag-toting outriders, the hall of a sudden filled up, with people already sitting at the front required to move their chairs several paces closer to the stage to make space for the inflow at the entrance.
The crowd seemed to have materialised out of nowhere, streaming into the hall and spilling over into the parking area.
Until his arrival an hour before dusk at the Dewan Kaatu Raja in a middle-class housing estate in this state ward which lies in the parliamentary constituency of Padang Serai, only a third of the 500 plastic chairs laid out in the hall were occupied.But when the PKR supremo arrived to fanfare, heralded by the revving machines of 30 party flag-toting outriders, the hall of a sudden filled up, with people already sitting at the front required to move their chairs several paces closer to the stage to make space for the inflow at the entrance.
The crowd seemed to have materialised out of nowhere, streaming into the hall and spilling over into the parking area.
Effigy of Anwar’s corpse
Earlier in the evening, a cordon of what looked like local toughs (understood to be from neighbouring Merbok parliamentary constituency rather than Padang Serai itself) barred people at the turnoff from the main road into the lane that led to Dewan Kaatu Raja.
This cordon strutted around in a menacing manner, spouting slogans abusive of the moral character of the PKR supremo.
PKR cadres said they were the same people responsible for posting an effigy, at a prominent intersection on the route to Dewan Kaatu Raja, of what was a corpse of Anwar bound in a white cloth.
Members of PKR Padang Serai Youth wing tried dissuading the toughs from stopping people headed for the ceramah where Anwar was scheduled to speak.
A detachment of the Light Strike Force and the OCPD of Lunas kept a wary eye on a situation whose tension would have ratcheted had the PKR youth cohort not preferred gentle methods of persuasion when talking to the toughs.
“It was a despicable thing to do,” observed Johari Abdul, PKR MP for Sungai Petani, referring to the effigy of Anwar’s corpse when speaking to the sparse crowd that was in the hall before Anwar’s arrival.
But after the surge of people into the hall that followed the main speaker’s arrival, the memory of the indignities and provocations of the earlier part of the evening evanesced as Anwar alternately regaled and riveted the crowd with his speech.
Change of oratory style
Every time he referred to his travails in the current and past sodomy trials he has been subjected to, the crowd craned a little more intently to follow his spiel - Anwar these days preferring to walk the stage with microphone in hand rather than stand at the lectern.
One cannot be sure whether this new style of his is to keep the often weary-looking Anwar, doubtless due to his hectic schedule, from dozing off, but certainly it adds to the magnetism of his oratory which keeps the audience agog.
The crowd at Dewan Kaartu was largely Indian, and Anwar - adept like great actors at alluding to private recesses in their public performances - tailors his speech to fit the psychology of his audience.
Ninety minutes later he did the same, this time to a largely Chinese crowd, at the Dewan Hoh Pek Soo in Lunas, which is another state ward in the Padang Serai parliamentary seat.
To both audiences he took head-on the Umno-BN derision of him as a leader who is essentially two-faced - racially-coloured to fit the specific audience he holds forth to.
He trotted out the same response to the charge at both venues: he said if he were what his harshest critics claim he is, he would have accepted their blandishments of wealth and honors and left the national stage a long time ago.
The crowds appear impressed by this argument enough to suggest that whatever verdict the High Court in Sodomy II issues, the one that the national courtroom of public opinion delivers at the fast looming 13th general election would be the more definitive.
Earlier in the evening, a cordon of what looked like local toughs (understood to be from neighbouring Merbok parliamentary constituency rather than Padang Serai itself) barred people at the turnoff from the main road into the lane that led to Dewan Kaatu Raja.
This cordon strutted around in a menacing manner, spouting slogans abusive of the moral character of the PKR supremo.
PKR cadres said they were the same people responsible for posting an effigy, at a prominent intersection on the route to Dewan Kaatu Raja, of what was a corpse of Anwar bound in a white cloth.Members of PKR Padang Serai Youth wing tried dissuading the toughs from stopping people headed for the ceramah where Anwar was scheduled to speak.
A detachment of the Light Strike Force and the OCPD of Lunas kept a wary eye on a situation whose tension would have ratcheted had the PKR youth cohort not preferred gentle methods of persuasion when talking to the toughs.
“It was a despicable thing to do,” observed Johari Abdul, PKR MP for Sungai Petani, referring to the effigy of Anwar’s corpse when speaking to the sparse crowd that was in the hall before Anwar’s arrival.
But after the surge of people into the hall that followed the main speaker’s arrival, the memory of the indignities and provocations of the earlier part of the evening evanesced as Anwar alternately regaled and riveted the crowd with his speech.
Change of oratory style
Every time he referred to his travails in the current and past sodomy trials he has been subjected to, the crowd craned a little more intently to follow his spiel - Anwar these days preferring to walk the stage with microphone in hand rather than stand at the lectern.
One cannot be sure whether this new style of his is to keep the often weary-looking Anwar, doubtless due to his hectic schedule, from dozing off, but certainly it adds to the magnetism of his oratory which keeps the audience agog.
The crowd at Dewan Kaartu was largely Indian, and Anwar - adept like great actors at alluding to private recesses in their public performances - tailors his speech to fit the psychology of his audience.
Ninety minutes later he did the same, this time to a largely Chinese crowd, at the Dewan Hoh Pek Soo in Lunas, which is another state ward in the Padang Serai parliamentary seat.
To both audiences he took head-on the Umno-BN derision of him as a leader who is essentially two-faced - racially-coloured to fit the specific audience he holds forth to.
He trotted out the same response to the charge at both venues: he said if he were what his harshest critics claim he is, he would have accepted their blandishments of wealth and honors and left the national stage a long time ago.
The crowds appear impressed by this argument enough to suggest that whatever verdict the High Court in Sodomy II issues, the one that the national courtroom of public opinion delivers at the fast looming 13th general election would be the more definitive.
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