ROMPIN MAYHEM: Reporters sent on wild goose chase

ROMPIN - PAS aims big in Rompin to pull a large number of votes from Barisan Nasional (BN) and yet their actions show otherwise.

Putting aside the banners and posters, it would appear that they have only done enough to get the votes of the serious and loyal long-time PAS supporters.

Media practitioners here, tasked with the responsibility to highlight their campaign and let the public know of what they are doing to deserve voters’ support, have been sent on a wild goose chase.

This was even more apparent tonight, as journalists and photographers were invited to cover PAS candidate Nazri Ahmad’s programme after he was absent from the mainland of Rompin for the past few days.

It was said that he had been on Tioman island for a campaign there.

First, banners around Muadzam Shah district, located more than an hour away from the Rompin’s centre where most media practitioners are based, had proclaimed that at 6pm Nazri would have a walkabout at a night market there to mingle with the people.

But the programme did not materialise as the PAS team decided to call it off without notifying the public or the journalists.

They, however, decided to invite the media to cover the candidate’s ceramah at 9pm in Kampung Leban Chondong, again more than an hour away from Muadzam Shah where he was supposed to be.

Once the media got there, merely half an hour before the ceramah was to begin, they were notified that the location had been changed at the last minute and this time it was to be held in Desa Kenanga, another hour back to Muadzam Shah.

The fiasco did not end there. Instead, for another hour the candidate’s aides themselves were unable to provide the media with an exact location of the ceramah.

The location for the PAS ceramah in Rompin tonight was changed, sending the media practitioners on a wild goose chase, leading to only 50 people finally turning up for a ceramah after massive confusion over its location. Even his supporters don't seem to know how to track PAS candidate Nazri Ahmad and his itinerary.

When they finally decided on a location, it was indeed in Leban Chondong but in a house situated in the middle of nowhere with no street lights nor signs indicating that a ceramah was to take place there.

It was a fortunate situation for the media who had decided to stay in Leban Chondong and tried to push for accurate information.

But for those who had turned around and headed to Desa Kenanga, as instructed by the PAS media organisers, it was a difficult situation.

That may also explain why there were only about 50 people present at the ceramah when the by-election for the parliamentary seat is just three days away. - http://www.therakyatpost.com/