Semenyih folks turn up in droves for polling day eve rallies

SEMENYIH POLLS

 | Both Pakatan Harapan and BN were able to draw sizeable crowds for their ceramah events on the eve of the Semenyih by-election.

In Semenyih town, a Harapan stage with mostly DAP speakers drew the biggest crowd of the night with an estimated 2,000 people present.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng was among the main speakers alongside Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari and Selangor exco member Teng Chang Khim.

Lim urged the mostly Chinese crowd to back Harapan's candidate Muhammad Aiman Zainali to show that they rejected Umno and PAS' racial politics.

"They claimed that a non-Muslim cannot be appointed as a finance minister, attorney-general or chief justice. What is this? We are living in the 21st century, let's forget about the colour of our skin. What is important is our ability,” he said.

A sizeable portion of the crowd left after Lim spoke and before Amirudin had arrived.

Some 600 meters away, another ceramah was taking place at the Chong Sai Kei food court which was the usual venue for MCA to hold their events throughout the campaign period.

The crowd here was small compared to DAP's spot. The most prominent personalities on the MCA stage were MCA vice-president Ti Lian Ker and MCA Youth chief Nicole Wong.

The biggest BN ceramah was held at Taman Pelangi where the main speaker was former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and former Kemaman MP Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

There were an estimated 800 people at this ceramah venue when Najib took the stage. At one point, he claimed that he was more popular than his successor Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“Last night, there was a leader who was outside Tesco. No one wanted selfies with him. I don’t know why.

“People say ‘Bossku’ means slavery. He does not understand. ‘Bossku’ means friendship. The people are ‘Bossku’.

“I don’t have cronies. My cronies are the people. They say I’m a thief but I only steal the hearts of the people,” said Najib, who was clearly in his element and enjoying himself. 

Najib said that the claims against him has yet to be proven in court while it was a "fact" that Harapan had reneged on their election promises. 

Too close for comfort

Meanwhile, over at Semenyih Indah, both Harapan and PAS had ceramah stages within earshot of one another resulting in the speakers from both sides trading barbs.

There were small crowds at both these venues. Strangely, both stages experience public address system problems. 

Over at Beranang, Negeri Sembilan Bersatu head Rais Yatim used a huge LCD screen to deliver a “lecture” on BN’s misdeeds, in particular, those committed by Najib.

Rais spoke mostly in the Minangkabau dialect as a significant portion of Malay voters in Semenyih are of Minangkabau descent.

Rais said that he had served every Malaysian prime minister before and he could tell who had done good for the country.

“The odd one out is the son of Tun Razak,” he said. -Mkini