Now, yesterday 24 April 2013, I was in Segamat to attend to a customer who is also a friend. He asked me to come down to Segamat specifically because there will be a major ceramah involving DSAI in Segamat at Padang Kg. Abdullah in the middle of town. So naturally I said ok and I made the journey down there. As I was alone and only armed with a Iphone 4 which the camera quality is deteriorated, I couldn't take any photos along the way.
What I can tell you is the Star Reporter got it all wrong: Banners were sprouting everywhere and Bilik Gerakan for both sides of the divide quite active putting up more. Some important intersections were full of banners, fish tails and long banners alike. And for a 'sleepy' town like Segamat, election fever has hit the people there hard like anywhere else.
So round 1 was tea time and my friend's friend came with a sticker of 'No to Lynas' on his shirt. We were engaged in an animated discussion of politics and election, exchanging news and were leaning on the fact that it looks like Pakatan is having the edge in Segamat. However, we leave that till we see the crowd in the ceramah that night.
So later my friend picked me up and then we go had dinner nearby the padang (the fried kueh tiaw with sauce is good). After dinner at about 9 pm we walked across the road and joined the ceramah.
Ho and behold: the crowd was big for Segamat standard! At the time we joined the crowd we estimated to be about 5 - 10 thousand people already present. Speaker after speaker goes up and speak and one that had my attention and to my surprise a good speaker is Cikgu Normala of PAS. She is the DUN candidate for Pemanis and also the ex-candidate for Tenang by-election (remember the flood on the day of the election: she is the poor soul I thought was a victim of the weather and lost the by-election by a bigger margin then).
She is a good speaker and she has a clear and direct voice which for me is a first as generally very few women from PAS are prominent in the ceramah circuit. She is quite young and fiesty and according to my friend, she got guts and have substance and she is very friendly. She hammered the points home one after the other and I thought she is one of the better speakers of the night.
As the night wore on, the crowd grew. From the earlier estimates it probably swell to a good 15 thousand although some say as many as 20 - 30 thousand that night. Hard to estimate as it is night time. But a very big crowd, the largest in recent history in Segamat for a political ceramah where NO FREE FOOD OR GOODIES. I wonder if BN can do the same with the same conditions.
Salahuddin Ayub and Chua Jui Meng were the two last speakers before DSAI arrived. They fired up the crowd and got it going. Salahuddin endeared himself with the Chinese by saying that his mother is Chinese. He was hammering home the point that he will defend all the races and the constitution in regards to religion, special rights and the rights of the other minorities. One very articulate speaker and a possible good candidate for MB if they ever win Johor.
Chua was quite a good speaker though not as smooth as Salahuddin and were actually trying to get the crowd fired up before the finale. So, when DSAI walked in the crowd roared with approval. I can feel the mood of the crowd changed into expectations that something great is happening. It gives me the creeps and yet it also gave hope that people have finally found someone else other than from UMNO to lead this country. Malays, Chinese and Indians were all present in good numbers, young, old, women and children too.
DSAI went into his speech with gusto and repeating the familiar things I have heard over the past days over the online tv ceramahs by him. However, for the Segamat folks, some of them hearing for the first time. They lap up every word he says, laugh at every jokes he poked at his adversaries, listened intently when he outlines what he wants to do when he becomes Prime Minister. I believe that night alone many fence sitters would have been convinced by him and many more will in turn spread what he said.
All in all, it was a tiring but satisfying night. To see that crowds like this has never been seen in an UMNO-BN stronghold attending Pakatan ceramah, it is a feeling that something might just happen on 5th May 2013.
Oh ya. On a lighter note, the pasar malam people are really tailing the Pakatan Ceramah like how the Digi Yellow Man....'I will follow you, follow you wherever you may goooo...'. Poor owner of Sekinchan Ikan Bakar who mentioned that hawkers lost business. They have ROARING business yesterday night!
