Despite an invitation, BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak, as expected, did not show up at a manifesto debate and forum organised by electoral watchdog Bersih at the Kuala Lumpur and Chinese Assembly hall yesterday.
Bersih had invited Najib and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (right) to the event ahead of the polls, but the former had not responded to their invitation nor did he send any representative to outline the contents of the BN manifesto.
This left the floor completely open for Anwar, who summarised his coalition's manifesto and took a few questions from moderator Dr Farouk Musa, before leaving to attend to speaking engagements elsewhere.
PKR's strategy director Rafizi Ramli, one of the key policy makers for Pakatan's manifesto, then handled the rest of the forum, fielding Dr Farouk's question and drawing comparisons between BN and Pakatan's manifestos.
However, Najib's absence was not missed as shown by the enthusiasm of a packed hall of 3,000 people, with many camped outside watching the forum from a live feed screen.
They gave a rapturous welcome and sendoff for Anwar during his brief appearance, and stayed back to listen to Rafizi going into the details of the Pakatan manifesto as the forum concluded after two hours.
The organisers, however, occasionally played videos of speeches that Najib had delivered at the recent launching of the BN manifesto recently, and slides that outlined the major talking points from the BN manifesto side-by-side with the PR manifesto.
Bersih had earlier said that there will be a surprise in store for the audience should Najib not make it for the event, but apart from the Rafizi back-up act for Anwar, there was hardly any surprise.
Bersih had invited Najib and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (right) to the event ahead of the polls, but the former had not responded to their invitation nor did he send any representative to outline the contents of the BN manifesto.This left the floor completely open for Anwar, who summarised his coalition's manifesto and took a few questions from moderator Dr Farouk Musa, before leaving to attend to speaking engagements elsewhere.
PKR's strategy director Rafizi Ramli, one of the key policy makers for Pakatan's manifesto, then handled the rest of the forum, fielding Dr Farouk's question and drawing comparisons between BN and Pakatan's manifestos.
However, Najib's absence was not missed as shown by the enthusiasm of a packed hall of 3,000 people, with many camped outside watching the forum from a live feed screen.
They gave a rapturous welcome and sendoff for Anwar during his brief appearance, and stayed back to listen to Rafizi going into the details of the Pakatan manifesto as the forum concluded after two hours.The organisers, however, occasionally played videos of speeches that Najib had delivered at the recent launching of the BN manifesto recently, and slides that outlined the major talking points from the BN manifesto side-by-side with the PR manifesto.
Bersih had earlier said that there will be a surprise in store for the audience should Najib not make it for the event, but apart from the Rafizi back-up act for Anwar, there was hardly any surprise.
But that did not seem to matter for the crowd which booed at visuals of Najib's speeches and applauded Anwar when he scored points.Anwar had stressed during his summary of the Pakatan manifesto that he will not apologise for his "populist" policies.
"What is wrong in being populist? Populist means coming up with pro-rakyat policies," he said.
He said that being populist is only a problem when the rakyat is fed with unrealistic promises through rhetoric.
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