30,000 Johoreans turned up at Umno’s bastion state Johor

Some 30,000 Johoreans turned up at the assembly of awakened Johoreans at Parit Raja, Batu Pahat on December 1, 2012, to shake Umno’s bastion state Johor.

Never in Johor’s political history has an Opposition rally attracted such an enormous crowd.The assembly was part of the on-going state-level Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat (Peoples’ Uprising Assembly) series being organised by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) nationwide.

It follows the national-level assembly staged in Taman Seremban Jaya in Senawang on Nov 3 which also attracted about 30,000 Malaysians.

A sea of politically awakened Johoreans turned up for Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat.

PR leaders seated from left are PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub, Johor PAS commissioner Mahfodz Mohamed, Johor PKR chairman Chua Jui Meng, PAS deputy president Mat Sabu, PR d factor leader Anwar Ibrahim and DAP vice-chairman Tan Seng Giaw. Hua is seen having a serious discussion with his Johor PAS counterpart while waiting for Hadi to wrap up his ceramah.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and myself arrived together at about 11pm and were pleasantly surprised by the mammoth crowd.

They both had to wade through a sea of people to get to the stage with their shoes and trousers covered with mud.

PAS president Hadi Awang was then in the midst of his more than an hour-long speech.

After Hadi wrapped up his ceramah, a brief ceremony was held to introduce and accept the membership application forms of several ex-senior Johor civil servants and former key Umno members who joined PAS.

Introducing and accepting application forms of new PAS members comprising ex-senior civil servants from Johor and key Umno members.

Anwar was then called to the stage to deliver his ceramah and got the crowd roaring when he shot off with: “This is not an Umno assembly! What (Prime Minister and Umno president) Najib (Abdul Razak) don’t understand is the emergence of Kebangkitan Rakyat (Peoples’ Uprising).”

“Malaysians today are well informed about socio-political issues. They are also much more intelligent and it is not so easy, as in the past, to fool them.

“There is no room for lip service and mere rhetoric in politics anymore. We must tell the rakyat (people) what we can offer and what we can do to provide good governance.

“We must make clear our people-oriented policies and that we are here to serve the people and to ensure their welfare and country’s progress.

“Unlike BN, if we are given the mandate to administer Putrajaya after the next 13th General Election, we will ensure the eradication of corruption,” Anwar said.

Anwar doing what he does best on stage … he kept the crowd listening to him for about 90 minutes.

When it was my turn to speak, I told the crowd: “Tonight is the turning point of PR’s arduous journey not only to Putrajaya, but to also topple Umno and MCA in their political stronghold.

The crowd is simply amazing because they remained until 1am to hear us out. They were also not put off by the muddy ground caused by rain in the late afternoon. The tiger is awakened! Umno, MCA and BN beware!

What is more telling is that some 90% of the audience were Malays. We are now witnessing a strong swing of Malay voters in Johor to PR.

In fact, I had arrived together with Anwar from the Johor PKR Deepavali Open House cum ceramah in Tebrau.

The turnout was about 5,000 people and what was encouraging was that 90% of the audience were Indians. This indicates Johoreans want people-centric and cleaner state and federal governments.

The strong turnout by the Indians in Johor also confirms that the community is also giving wider support to PR compared with the March 2008 political tsunami.