Just back the people’s gathering organized by Protest. Named “Protes Sejuta Rakyat Turun”, the name kinda weird :-S Well this gathering was held to protest the petrol price hike which brings a lot of big problems to Malaysian.
Last few days road blocks were set up by police everywhere in Klang Valley. To avoid traffic jam and save petrol fuel, I took LRT to Kalana Jaya LRT station. From there I was not sure which bus to take to bring me to the Kelana Jaya Stadium, so after waiting at LRT station for 15 minutes, I decided to walk to the stadium.
After walking for around 30 minutes under the hot sun, finally I’ve reached Kelana Jaya Stadium at 3:30pm. When I reach there, it was middle of lion dance performance. Whole stadium was like in carnival, having stalls doing business outside of the stadium.
After the lion dance performance, I walked around the stalls, looking for Protes red t shirt (my shirt was very wet due to sweating). I didn’t manage to get a t shirt because most of the stalls had all red t shirts sold out. But then luckly I walked around the stadium and found a stall at behind of the stadium selling red t shirt, and I bought 1 XXL t shirts (which are the left over =.=) for RM15.
After changing my shirt, I went into stadium, and listened to few politician’s speech, like Mat Sabu, Tan Seng Giaw, Teng Chang Khim, Husam Musa, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim… And of course, Badrul Hisham and Ginie Lim too š
After the speech, was the performance of the local punk rock band Carburetor Dung. I was standing beside the stage watching the band performance, I didn’t realize what happen, then suddenly I saw few guys jumped up to the stage and tried to stop the performance and pushed the vocalist from the stage, then I saw water bottles and rock thrown by the crowd to the stage. I thought the show was interrupted by police and the crowd tried to save the band. But I was wrong.
During singing the song Jilat (lick), the vocalist Alak pulled down his pant to the crowd, intended to heighten the āsatireā. However, this gesture was interpreted as disrespect gesture to Anwar Ibrahim, causing the crowd were anger and started to throwing mineral water bottles and rocks to the stage. Alak was whisked away by the PKR’s Angkatan Pemuda Keadilan. Hishamuddin Rais, the coordinator of the performance, took this responsibility and made emotional apologies to the crowd. After advices from the organizer, the situation was under control, and the organizer called a break for Maghrib prayers.
After the prayer, it was the beginning of the event’s climate. Important leaders from Pakatan Rakyat are going to appear at stadium, like Dr. Hatta Ramli, Nasir Hashim, Lim Kit Siang, Teresa Kok, Raja Petra Kamarudin, and the most waited Anwar Ibrahim.
I was standing behind the journalists, trying to get some nice photos. However, more and more people tried to squeeze in the little place too, and pushed me up to the stage. So I was quite near to the speech stage, enable me to get wonderful photos of the speakers.
I left the stadium at 10:35pm, with another friend that I knew in the stadium, John, a retired Indian friend. We talked while walking to the Kelana Jaya LRT station, for 30 minutes. However when we reach the LRT station, the service already stopped and the station was closed down. It was very expected, so we have to take cab to the KL.
It was a tiring day.