If you were at the Sept 15th rally and you parked your car at the side of the road, you should probably check if you kena saman. I’m not laughing at your misfortune or anything; it’s just that I’d parked my car by the road side, and as I was preparing to walk to the stadium, I saw a few cops giving out ‘lottery tickets’. Just so you know lah.

By sheer luck, we (Erna and I) managed to get the last legit parking spot in a proper parking place. About time too, because I was pretty pissed off with the universe by then; unfamiliarity with the area caused me to take a wrong turn, and so I had to make the biggest round in order to get back to the stadium. A Malay dude was directing me to park my car properly (as those illegal car jockeys would). I thought he wanted some money for that but turned out, he was just helping out of the kindness of his heart. I was very touched.

As we entered the stadium, we were handed a Jalur Gemilang each. Some people were passing out those rubber bracelets but we didn’t take them. Then the speakers blared out our national anthem, and we stood still. We were quite a distance away from the main crowd but people around us were singing the ‘Negaraku’ loudly. I felt so many things at once — flashbacks from my primary and high school assemblies, pride and joy from nowhere, etc that I got goosebumps throughout the song.

Leaders of Pakatan Rakyat on stage, some reading the doa

We made our way to one of the top of the covered spectator area, next to the media area. In hindsight, it was probably not a great decision because the speakers were way in front of us, facing the crowd. So I had some difficulty trying to understand the speeches. But it was great for photo ops though. Not as awesome as some of the photos uploaded to the journalists’ notebooks (I peeked) but my Panasonic Lumix TZ15 did the best it could. The 10x zoom really came in handy.

Dude wearing a DSAI face mask. I can’t begin to tell you how eerie this can be

The Chief Minister of Penang, Lim Guan Eng took the stage. I thought he was really good, really funny, really pro at working the crowd especially with his Chinese accent. Other speakers were Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim (I think), a PAS leader, Lim Kit Siang and finally, Anwar Ibrahim.

As you would have known by now, nothing major was announced at the rally. There were lots of ‘we have the numbers (crowd cheers), we have the numbers (crowd cheers)’, but they have been saying that since forever. There were lots on the ISA, which I used to brush off as a necessary evil. I have since changed my mind on that issue. However noble the original intentions may be (depending on whose perspective), its implementation and enforcement especially in this country where the government’s low tolerance for dissenting views is well-known and well-publicised (by foreign publications and non-mainstream media in Malaysia) has been nothing but cruel and vile. Sounds slightly generic, yes but it has been a long process for me to come to these beliefs.

I thought the speakers were rather funny when they made fun of Syed Hamid’s ridiculous explanation that the arrest of the Sin Chew reporter was necessary for her own safety. They (the speakers) also peppered their speeches with words and sentences in Chinese and Tamil. I cracked up when Anwar Ibrahim proclaimed, “WO MEN SHI YI JIA REN” (crowd cheers).

Will the real Anwar Ibrahim please stand up?

After Anwar’s speech, the ‘Negaraku’ was played again. Another goosebumps moment. I took a video of it here. Then everyone got up to leave the stadium; there was a slight jam at the stadium exits and at the parking lot to go home, but it was okay.

And it’s already September 17th. It’s funny how some people expected a sudden change in the government yesterday, and got sorely disappointed when that didn’t happen. Heh. Why do I find it funny? I don’t know, it just is. It’s like, people expecting something major to happen after Pakatan Rakyat took over the 5 states this past March 8th, but life goes on as usual for the wage earners. It has only been a few months lah, give it some time. After all, BN has been at the helm since 1957. Rome was not built in a day and all that jazz. Bla bla bla bla bla.

A stitched photo of the crowd at the rally. Click on the photo above for a larger version

By the way, I heart Zaid Ibrahim (crowd cheers).