Friday 4.5.18
Padir said Mahathir would come to a Pakatan Harapan campaign at Kg. Kerinchi, KL, the night of our return from Saigon. Our Saigon trip was planned a month earlier. We didn't know (nobody did) Najib would dissolve Parliament and the EC would fix nomination day on 28th. April, so we kept our trip's schedule (why wouldn't we?), and I missed attending Fahmi's nomination. I only informed Padir once we landed at KLIA. It was only hours after our return flight, but Idah insisted we give our moral support to our nephew, who's taking over the PKR Lembah Pantai Parliamentary seat.
So here in Kg. Kerinchi we were at about half-past eight that Thursday evening. I know Kg. Kerinchi because it's just off the Federal Highway opposite the U.M.'s main gate, but didn't know the location of the gathering. It wasn't a problem in the end, because we saw the crowd, and cofirmed with a young lady wearing a P.H.'s badge, and walked the 50 m. to the flats, where a large crowd had already gathered.
Plastic chairs were provided on the open ground, I think it must be a playing ground, because the flats surrounded the open space. The three of us (Kak Long tagged along - we stopped at her house in Bangi) took the empty chairs on the first row, and some party staff immediately came and gave the Pakatan flags, badges, phamplets and bottled drinking water to us. I gladly accepted the water bottle, drank it up, and quickly asked for, and got the second bottle. We didn't have to wait long for Mahathir.
I've attended many political campaigns before. I know the atmosphere. But let me tell you, this was different.
I didn't tell Padir until I came back from golf, Friday, my first game after 6 days. I played with my golfing "kaki" of 23 long years, and 2 of her children who happen to be golf-teaching pros ( RM 150 per hour ). The 23 years I'm referring to is not her age, if you're puzzled. It's how long we've played together, from 1996, a year after I moved to Seremban.
So I told Padir: here's my take of the Kg. Kerinchi campaign. The atmosphere was electric, and I say this without exaggeration. All 3 races were there in their numbers, greeting each other like old pals, waving the Pakatan Harapan's flags etc, wrapping the flags around their bodies instead of just holding them in their plastic bags as if to give embrace to the party logo. Several people now and again shouted "refomasi", "ini kali lah" and other unidentifiable slogans, and each time the crowd roared in unison. And shortly, when Mahathir came, the roar of "hidup Tun, hidup Tun" clearly was genuine. I had goose bumps, and let me tell you, I'm a cynical guy, but I had goose bumps. The crowd itself was not bigger than maybe 10,000 (big enough by any standard), but the atmosphere was incredible !
It's my take also that the power of the Mahathir draw is real. I think people realize that he's the one guy capable of giving the moral leadership to this anti-Najib movement, because that's what it is.
It's my take that there's depth in the support of the people - all races were there, and remarkably, they were youthful. The amazing thing was we were talking to each other, and not just looking at the centre stage. The young Indian guy sitting next to me was gushing about attending Nurul Izza's campaign in this very place in 2013, how he was strongly MIC then, and now he has decided to switch camp. He was surprised when I told him we were from Seremban. The two Chinese ladies sitting behind us offered us their Pakatan flags when I asked where they got theirs. And people who pushed past us, as the crowd thickened, did so in a smiling friendly way.
Mahathir didn't speak long, and I think that's the right way. He spoke plainly, clearly, and didn't use any euphemism when attacking Najib. That's also the best way in this campaign, I think. He didn't try to cover too many things. He couldn't anyway, because he had to go to Putrajaya, and later reports described the big crowd there, too. And not covering too many things is also the right way.
Having just come back from Saigon, and driving here from Seremban, I know the toll on the human body when doing these things. Yet here's a 93-year old man, who has no need to pick quarrels with a Prime Minister, who is going to many places all at the same time, to lead the fight to remove his own prodigy from power just because he believes he's bad for the country. Many wouldn't bother.
For those of us who care for this land of ours, we should feel ashamed if Mahathir's fight is a lonely fight, and we have more reasons to fight the corruption and abuse of authority because we have longer to live, at least on paper. It's criminal if we don't fight this abuse of power, this balatant disregard for rule of law. We have no choice but to fight. We may not win. But we must fight while we can.
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