MOI Must Pay More Than RM25,000 To Secure Felda Votes

Last Friday nite we were at Jengka 8 in Pahang to attend a Pakatan Harapan ceramah organised by Bersatu. We reached Jengka after 7 pm and left after midnite.   It was a cool place and the drive through Pahang was fantastic as usual.   We drove through Jerantut, Krau, Temerloh, Chenor and the Karak Hiway.

Over the years I have many times driven through the rural areas of this beautiful country late at night or in the early hours of the morning. It is always serene and beautiful to drive through all our small towns when everything is quiet and shut down for the day.  Among my favorite routes for late night travel is the road from Kuala Kangsar to Gerik via Sauk and Lenggong.  Or from Ipoh to Gua Musang via Simpang Pulai and the Camerons.

There will always be at least one stray dog going about his rounds. And there will be that single restaurant or warong open at 2 am with one or two motorbikes and a few locals sitting quietly and having a meal or drinking tea. There will be all those old government buildings, private houses and shops built before Merdeka or thereabouts which add so much class to our environment. And all those kampong houses, even the modern ones, all tucked into their little portions of paradise which, with a little manicuring, will one day become priceless.

Back to the ceramah. The spot for the ceramah was an abandoned saw mill deep inside Jengka 8. As you can guess, all other venues were unavailable. The main speakers were Mukriz Mahathir, Dato Zaid Ibrahim, YB Ariff Sabri, Mazlan Aliman, Wan Mohd Shahrir and others. They are all ex-UMNO.

I was surprised at the turnout. Over 2000 people came to the ceramah. Here are some pictures :

Five hundred seats filled up. Standing room only at the back.

Ex UMNO : Zaid Ibrahim, Ariff Sabri, Mukriz, Aliman, Wan Mohd Shahrir (extreme left) and others.

This was the crowd AFTER 12 midnite, winding up time. They stayed to listen.

On the same night and at the same time, to sabotage our event, UMNO organised their own "pesta mempertahankan pencuri MOI" on the main road of Jengka 8. 

To distract the people they gave away free 30 I-Phones, 1 motorbike, 1000 tickets to a football match (Kelantan vs Kedah ??) and umrah packages. The free gifts alone would be worth about RM100,000.  (30 I-phones x RM2000 a piece = RM60,000 already). Yet over 2,500 people still attended the Bersatu ceramah.

In contrast to UMNO's splurging (using money donated by mysterious Saudi donors) the Bersatu ceramah in that abandoned sawmill cost about RM5000 only. 

Blogger Apanama and I spoke to some of the people there. They all seem aware of the 1MDB scandal. They all know that the MOI guy stole money. And listen to this folks, they all know that before the General Elections, Najib will be giving them a durian runtuh of RM25,000 to "buy" their votes.  They are all waiting for it - with big smiles on their faces. Will they vote for Najib this time? They put on big smiles on their faces.  

These folks are not dumb. They know what is going on. 

While the speakers were on stage I was watching the crowd very closely. As usual more than half were women. They appeared to take in the fact that all the speakers were ex UMNO. And the appearance of Dato Zaid Ibrahim (a last minute addition) alongside Mukhriz Mahathir and Ariff Sabri (a DAP MP from Raub) only added to their curiosity.  So many ex UMNO Ministers, YBs and ex Ketua Bahagian UMNO were now outside of UMNO.  There must be something terribly wrong with UMNO.

Then Mazlan Aliman the chief of the Anak Peneroka Felda gave his no holds barred, ringgit and sen, facts and figures speech about the present situation in Felda.  Aliman has already done his job. Its too late to stop Aliman from saying anything more or less. All the Felda folks already know what he has been highlighting. They have been robbed and they are being robbed. That is the cerita pendek. You dont have to tell them anymore. They already know.    

Its too late.