Ee Chia, Arul and I got into Bagan Pinang late last night. Zorro, Gus and the others had gotten in earlier.
This morning, we were to assemble at the meeting point at 8am.
Traffic on the road, however, was horrendous, so we parked and joined the others to walk some 5km in the rain to the nomination centre.
The state of the traffic en route to the nomination centre
Some of the many who legged it to the nomination centre
We got to the vicinity of the nomination centre a little before 9.20am and found that it was going to be impossible to get anywhere close to the centre as the BN supporters had taken up position close to it
BN supporters up on a hillslope taunting the Pakatan supporters below
BN supporters closer to the ground level where the Pakatan supporters were
and police appeared to have created a buffer zone between the BN supporters and the Pakatan supporters
FRU facing off the Pakatan supporters. Behind them was the buffer zone and then the BN supporters
and were not allowing anyone other than the politicians through the buffer zone to get to the centre.
The Pakatan supporters just below the hillslope where the BN supporters were
Just before 10am, BN supporters up on the hillslope started to pelt the Pakatan supporters below with mineral water bottles. Police reacted to issue warnings to the BN supporters.
The Pakatan supporters, in turn responded with a chorus of ‘Altantuya! Altantuya! Altantuya’, ‘Isa rasuah’ and ‘Hancur BN’.
I had difficulty estimating the crowd size of both the BN and Pakatan contingent of supporters.
Sunny reckons that Pakatan supporters numbered in excess of 35,000 whilst the BN supporters numbered around 15,000.
I think the numbers were much smaller.
I’d put it at 15,000, at best, for Pakatan, and around 5,000 for BN.
Kelab Penyokong PAS (KPP) members were there in large numbers, both from within the newly formed Bagan Pinang branch and elsewhere.
Was told they came from all over the country
Siva, extreme right, told me that the kelab in Bagan Pinang had just been formed but membership was slowly growing. He couldn't give me numbers, though
At about 10.30am, members of the Kelab Penyokong BN (KPBN), replete with T-shirts and a flags, attempted to march in the direction of the nomination centre, but through the end where the Pakatan supporters were.
The Pakatan supporters weren’t about to put up with this and blocked their passage.
The KPBN boys finally backed off.
Which brings me to the point that Arul made last night.
One can understand the sense of the KPP, given that membership of the party is presently only open to Muslims, so that setting up a club for non-Muslims to support PAS was a stroke of genius.
But a club for BN supporters?
I mean, if you support BN, just join one of the component parties, no?
Wonder whose no-brainer this was?
After the KPBN fellas gave up, some Puteri UMNO members made their way through the Pakatan side.
Pakatan supporters let them through, but not without first dangling rinngit notes before them in an obvious reference to vote-buying.
Go, on take the money
Ambillah. Jangan malu
Just before 11am, there was a bit of a commotion as police stopped a group of KPP boys from playing their musical instruments, gendang and all.
KPP boys banging away at drums and all. They were asked by the cops to stop. They did, but resumed a little further away
Cop explaining to the KPP boys why they could not play the gendang and all. The crowd responded with expletives that I cannot reproduce here
Later, PAS supporters and the KPP boys got together for a group photographs.
11.30am, and we were going to head out. Dreaded the thought of having to walk another 5km.
Alan came along and saved the day with the offer of a lift.
Am back in KL for the FreedomFilmFest 2009.
Will be back in Bagan Pinang over the next couple of days.
sash
October 3, 2009
KPBN – maybe they are members of Kimma, IPF, Nallakarupan’s party and Makkal Sakti – those mosquito parties whose leaders are trying to curry favours with UMNO.
sash
October 3, 2009
Just for the record, don’t have much respect for KPP either.
If someone doesn’t accept u for what u are and and is unwilling to treat u as an equal, please don’t waste time on them.
Jong
October 3, 2009
HahahaHHa! Watched on tv the dangling and waving of ringgit notes by Pakatan supporters at the corrupted bunch. don’t they deserve it!
Meng
October 3, 2009
Thanks for the photos. Hope PAS will make it
mccann105
October 4, 2009
great i just called my uncle and aunty dont vote for pas ..give some votes to b n as much as we dislike…know why? as long as pas keep winning they have people like hassan ali and those bigot pas youth…i think my uncle n family have abt just 7 votes..maybe some relatives add plus minus about another 6 to 7 more..not crucial anyway
Maxie
October 4, 2009
And what about the “as long as BN keep winning, they’d have people like Najib and Khir Toyo and the keris-waving narcissists in there?”
Your reasoning is seriously no reason at all.
julian
October 4, 2009
good foe you now if your family suffer dont blame PR
tres
October 5, 2009
good…go vote for bn, if that will give peace to you…
if u can’t win in bagan pinang (which bn stronghold) forget about winning 1malaysia lah..
temenggong
October 4, 2009
Haris,
There is a call to boycott the Bagan Pinang by-election. I support this to teach PR a lesson so they don’t take votes for granted, which is what they are doing. BN will win Bagan Pinang for sure. We want Isa back in umno circles to create dissent there.
temenggong,
I have to admit that I’ve thought of this before.
Must give some thought now whether I share your thoughts on this.
Right now, though, I’m not with you.
Bob
October 7, 2009
Boycott of elections was also the clarion call of Tamil Tiger’s Prabhakaran. He wanted to show his strength, as Rajapaksa’s opponent wanted to have peace with the Tigers. But Prabhakaran’s boycott of the elections resulted in Rajapaksa brothers coming to power. And concluded with the death of Prabhakaran and the destruction of the LTTE.
Boycott’s of elections may sound academically interesting, but in the real world it is the kiss of death. Ask Prabhakaran.
temenggong
October 8, 2009
The situations are not the same. We have to look at supporting byelections on a case by case basis. We cannot give a blank cheque to PR.
Bagan Pinang was lost when KPB was leveled.
Meng
October 4, 2009
Boycott is not the way to go if we want to teach umno a lesson. Have we not learned and see the current shit around us today. When will all these nonsense stop unless we get rid of umno. We all want a good life for our children..don’t we.
Erdoganist
October 4, 2009
We are done trying to change the country? So lets support UMNO now? OK. Its probably good for my business anyway.
julian
October 4, 2009
you got a point there ,,,when your childen suffer will you blame umno????? lol
Erdoganist
October 4, 2009
I was just trying to make a point to the people who wanted to boycott PR even before we win. Cheers.
zuri
October 4, 2009
Change? what change? How?
Can the rakyat got back all that had been squandered by those most corrupted BN law makers like toyo, Taib,
Teoh king sing, ong tee keat and etc….
IGP and MACC had so far could not arrived at any conclusion about the loss by billions..
Just look at TBH who had to lose his life over a Rm2000 scandal at the MACC office.
Hey, never dream these BN/UMNO morons will change!!!
Sambal muncha
October 4, 2009
Yes admittedly there are a few waywards in PAS/PR. And I do believe the leadership is a little coy about reprimanding these publicity seeking renegades. But this is politics.
At the end of the day, we need to vote for the party that is less corrupt, and it ain’t BN.
shar101
October 4, 2009
How come nobody thought of using a ‘sampan‘ and take the sea route instead.
Anywayz, there seems to be a subtle effort being thrown into this BP by-election to get indian voters to abstain.
Whether it is UMNO-driven or a tussle between indian political parties from both sides to show who has the majority support of their community is still unclear.
PAS must take notice.
julian
October 4, 2009
way to go harris you got nice pictures keep up the good work to educate the rayak
fangseang
October 4, 2009
Throwing away votes is a cowardice act and this is a strategy employed to disenfranchise the electorate.
In this instance, it is an UMNO ploy to ensure their candidate wins. No way, right thinking Malaysians should allow this.
Those that write to support this are paid spinners anyway with a hidden agenda.
Vote with your thinking cap and see the injustices created for yourself. Kugan taken into custody came out a motionless corpse whilst TBH taken in as witness was made to exit the 14th floor dead. There are thousand more.
Others were taken into ISA for nothing just because their political leanings were not in line with the BN.
Billions of public funds were siphoned into cronies’ pocket and leaving hundreds of thousand still below poverty line.
Can we tolerate this any more ?
Paul Warren
October 4, 2009
Despite being found guilty of corruption by the courts of UMNO, ISA is selected to contest.
If UMNO wins BP, the UMNO War Lords will continue to have their way. Najib is weaker for that.
If UMNO loses BP, Najib can with finality say to the War Lords, their days are over. UMNO War Lords would be silenced. UMNO will lose its bearings; for a while at least. But Najib, at the driver’s seat has an opportunity to turn things around. Technocrats and academics and if there are any decent people left may be brought towards the centre to give UMNO the image it might need for GE13. And there is more than enough time to do that.
Najib would also have the time to clean out BN. MIC’s days might be numbered then. And so would MCA.
Yes, if PAS wins, it might be a great win for PAS and PR. But it may just be that UMNO might be given the oportunity to remake itself, provided of course Najib has the gumption for it.
Concerned Citizen
October 4, 2009
To all who are thinking to vote BN please consider seriously.
Hassan Ali and the likes are merely irritants compare to the monsterous BN. Think of the hundreds of billions of ringgits wasted over the 52 years of
BN rule.Enough is enough.
chong
October 4, 2009
it’s a very tough fight.
Sam01
October 4, 2009
Keep us posted on the Indian voters’ stand. They are a very emotional people and can be swayed by high sounding promises. We have to win them over 100%.
The Chinese are a steady lot. They are with Pakatan, so no problem with that.
Only blind fellows will support BN.
As for the Malays they will be evenly split but I am not sure we can rely on postal voters. Their votes may be marked by Isa himself since he has the money to buy.
Saiful
October 4, 2009
There is a saying that “there’s none so deaf as those who don’t want to hear and none so blind as those who don’t want to see.” Haven’t we heard and seen enough of what UMNO/BN have done so far to our beloved country – of their corruption, abuse of power and their racist policies? Are we craving for more?
Kelantan has been under PAS rule for almost two decades now but have we heard of such notoriety from them? None. I’ve been traveling to Kota Baru back and forth almost every other month and I’m very impressed with the racial and religious harmony prevailing over there. This is what happens when a God-fearing man leads. Nobody could feel more secured.
Given the choice as in Bagan Pinang, my vote will definitely go to PAS – never to UMNO/BN.
eaglewings
October 5, 2009
Winning Bagan Pinang is gonna be a tough call. The cheaters will cheat to the maximum. They just just started off with the postal votes in thousands. This calls for a serious concern of what may come in the next GE. Are they recruting millions into the forces for the postal votes?
Homemakers
October 6, 2009
Hi Haris, we would also like to say A BIG THANK YOU to you and the other bloggers too for helping in Bagan Pinang. God Bless All Of You
Shakuntala
October 6, 2009
The talk spread about Najib Razak supporters, is that he is an Oxfordian. So, he knows what he is talking about. Be that as it may, one wonders? He is quoted as saying that Isa Samad has been duly punished for having breached party rules…no further mention. What party rules?
Najib says in the BN system even a criminal gets a second chance! Can you believe that one?
Which means that if the criminal, criminalises again, it is quite ok, we’ll punish him, keep him in the fold….and give him a third, fourth, fifth chance… because he is such a good criminal.and is so popular..????!!
Here you have it..Isa Samad’s offence is only a technical offence in the party, says Najib. What does he mean?
Got it, finally….this is the 1MALAYSIA system, he is talking about.
Don’t tell me the Ra’ayat is going to swallow that one?
There is still a chance for BP…just wait and see.Don’t lose HOPE.
You know you always get the best quotes from taxi-drivers. Ask them about politics and they’ll spell you the truth with a lot of intelligence!
This particular taxi-driver, who incidentally was a Haji,was asked what he thought of the present state of Malaysian politics and the 1MALAYSIA concept.The reply was cute, cut and dry, and came quick. He said 1MALAYSIA was just,”1POCKET-FULL .” Now, I’d call that intelligence!
Wouldn’t you?
starlight
October 6, 2009
No matter what, boycotting is not the way to go. If we contribute to BN chance of wining the by-election, it will surely boost the BN ego and the BN will surely say that the Rakyat still support them and then will justify all the corruption that is going on,(we have the rakyat’s support). Then we dont have to expect any changes to the current system, be it the police, the judiciary or the MACC.
Instead it is wiser to vote for a less corrupt party and then if they produce idiotic leaders or dont perform to expectations like Hassan Ali then we put the pressure on the party to have him ousted out.
starlight
October 6, 2009
PS. I hope the Barisan Rakyat /Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia team and supporters would carry the same sentiment.
Habib RAK
October 6, 2009
Haris,
This is great clip on candidate Zul