Day 2 – HS Adventure

I intended to catch at least 3 hours of sleep before leaving to Hulu Selangor (HS). My Ketua AMK was to pick me from my home at 2.30 am. But I woke up late and we left at 3.30am. My bad, totally.

It is a big day. We headed down to Batang Kali, where our station is. The other members were already there. We reached at nearly 5 am. It is apparent that the Barisan flags definitely outnumber our flags.

My grogginess was replaced quickly with enthusiasm when we were approaching our station. I could see our flags from each corner of my eyes. There is a tent/marquee at the petrol station nearby, which was covered with the Keadilan flags. I could see feet from the little view I had from the car. My ketua told me that the some of the members were spending the night there. In the open!

As the rays of dawn sneaked out, everywhere I looked there was someone in either a keadilan uniform, a “selamatkan Malaysia” t-shirt or some shirt that indicates the person is at least

Jafrien Mohamed and I

supporting keadilan/Pakatan Rakyat. We were ready to leave.

We convoyed with two cars to Taman Gamelon, where another one of our stations was. We walked about 2 kilometres to the marching point. The traffic started to build up then. And since, it is my first time being part of a by-election campaign. I thought this was quite a sight. The cars were at a standstill, there were people walking and they were all my friends! I may not know them personally, but we have the same objective and the same hope at this point of time. And amongst the many times that I felt like I belong, this was definitely one of them. I could almost literally feel the “semangat perjuangan” that they all talk about. Those two Malay words have been so overused that people do not absorb the meaning of it anymore.

It’s a hot day. My uniform was not exactly conducive for hot and humid weather.

The crowd increased by the minute. The AMK was given the task to lead the march towards the nomination centre. The leaders came one by one. YB Azmin Ali, YB Salehuddin Ayub, YB Hassan Ali, YB William Leong, YB Teng Chang Khim, YB Elizabeth Wong, YB Dr Xavier Jayakumar, our Chief Minister, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim and last but definitely not least, Dato’ Zaid Ibrahim. There were rounds applause and cheers as each one of them turned up. There were repeated chants of “Reformasi”. The mood was overflowing with the fighting spirit.

The helicopters were flying about, I heard one of the supporters exclaimed:” Malaysia boleh, takde engin pun boleh terbang”.

We marched, we chanted repeatedly “Reformasi” and “Hidup Rakyat”. We did not have much space, we had marched on a path of about 100 metres wide in diameter with stalls at the side. And if you have seen me, I’m not exactly known for my height so I could only see heads and the tip of flag poles they were holding.

After marching for 10 minutes, we had to stop because the policemen formed a human barricade to stop us and also a barb-wired fence. The leaders had gone in, the election commission had only allowed for 200 people in total to enter the centre.

As leaders were doing their thing, registering with the election commission, there were ceramahs going on. I saw YB Tian Chua speaking through loud speaker, one dude probably from PAS was talking on what looked like truck and there was one who spoke at a tent/marquee with chairs around. The people were fully-spirited, despite the sweat and heat. We had waited for more than an hour and yet, the supporters shouted randomly “Reformasi”, “Hidup Rakyat” or “Takbir, Allahuakbar”. I definitely could not have caught up with them.

When the time came for the announcement of candidates, the crowd booed to all the names except for Dato’ Zaid Ibrahim, naturally.

By this time, I am tired, sleepy, hot and hungry. Small price to pay for the experience of “Semangat perjuangan”.

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