God, is this a sign?

16 years old and in Form 4, I was once caught climbing over the gate to get into school during school hours. I was completely drenched from a storm that had just stopped.

Truth is, some two hours before, sensing that a storm was looming, I climbed over the same gate to get out of school, then climbed over the Merdeka Stadium gate ( which was about 30 feet away from the school gate ), made my way down to the middle of the football pitch, sat down and waited for the storm to come.

And it came, leaving me with drenched and with this awesome sense of being one with Mother Nature.

Headmaster Victor Gopal did not buy this story, though. Three strokes for being late for school, so he thought, and another three for lying to him!

That’s how I felt yesterday, a little after noon, when rain came pouring down after the candidates for the Permatang Pauh by election had been announced and we were all making our way back to our car, abandoned like that of many others, on the highway about a kilometre or so away.

Drenched as I walked back with Benny, Arthur and Zorro, I thought back to the following verse of the Holy Qur’an :

‘Remember He covered you with a sort of drowsiness, to give you calm as from Himself, and he caused rain to descend on you from heaven, to clean you therewith, to remove from you the stain of Satan, to strengthen your hearts, and to plant your feet firmly therewith’ - Surah 8 verse 11

I found myself silently asking, “Lord is this a sign that Your forces are with those who will soon go to battle to bring justice and equality to this land?”

And almost instantly, my thoughts went to the following

‘… God never changes the grace He has bestowed on any people until they first change that which is in their hearts. God is Hearer, Knower’ - Surah 8 verse 53

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Zorro, TV Smith, Arthur, Benny and I left the budget hotel at Simpang Ampat together with RPK and others at about 7.30am yesterday, headed for the PKR centre, from which we were then to make our way to the nomination centre.

Enroute, Zorro was alerted that traffic to the nomination centre had become chaotic.

I was not prepared for what I was about to shortly witness.

As we got to about 2 kilometres from the nomination centre, traffic on the highway had ground to a near halt.

A kilometre and about 20 minutes later, it became obvious that the car was going nowhere. The others got out and started to walk. I found my spot on the highway, where vehicles had been abandoned three abreast amidst shouts by drivers abandoning their cars that ‘Nak saman. samanlah’ and ‘Takut apa? Tak lama lagi kerajaan baru’.

Caught this shot from the highway after abandoning the car.

As I reached the main road that would ultimately lead up to the nomination centre, caught sight of this now all-too familiar sight.

And this, now too becoming very familiar.

Barisan Rakyat, too, were there.

The Pakatan Rakyat crowd outside the nomination centre perimeter fence filled up the entire area and brought with it a carnival-like atmosphere with music, dance and mask and all.

There was not a single BN flag in sight out here.

On the field within the nomination centre perimeter fence, the Pakatan Rakyat supporters were in similar mood.

This group of Pakatan supporters came up with a re-worked game of badminton. The object was only to ‘SMASH’.

As they smashed the shuttlecock, you could hear them cry out loud, ‘Smash ISA’, ‘Smash Najib’, ‘Smash Rosmah’, ‘Smash BN’.

Speaking of BN, these are the best photos I could take of the BN corner of supporters.

These were taken whilst balancing precariously from up a tree.

These photos were taken at ground level from as close as I could get to the BN corner.

And these photos of the BN corner were taken from the Pakatan corner.

My estimate of numbers?

BN : 3,000 – 5,000

Pakatan Rakyat : 50,000

At about 11.40am, the elections officer announced that there would be three candidates for the parliamentary seat of Permatang Pauh, to be decided on 26th August.

It took quite a while for the crowd to start to clear.

And then the blessed rain came pouring down.

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Lord, we are people trying to change, to try and bring about justice in this land.

Lord, walk with us in our hour of need.