Temporary Irreverance - BN Rally at Bangsar

As they say, one has to know how the other half lives, or rather, campaigns. Pictures taken from last night's BN Rally 'Malam Mesra' in Bangsar. I'm putting this on the web because it will be easier for everyone rather than send massive files of the pictures (and also it will collate the images from all the various sources)

The turnout was abysmal with most of the observers preferring to camp out at the VIP Corner of Nirwana Restaurant for teh tarik and milo ice, and steadfastly refusing to actually enter the tent set up. The entire lane sandwiching Bangsar Village II and the row of shops where Nirwana is located was cordoned off, with the lane running in front of BSV II cordoned off for the VIP cars. (of which included a Mercedes S class, a BMW 5 series, a BMW 4 wheel drive - wonder who those cars belonged to and why they were getting a police escort). Bangsar has never felt safer with half a dozen cops on every nook, cranny, corner and back lane. Pity it's not like that EVERY night of the year.

At 9.15pm the stated time for Najib to appear, there was nary a sight of the DPM (which is strictly speaking incorrect since Parliament has been dissolved and he is NOT the DPM any more at present time). The tent was still only about 1/4 full with the organisers having shoved the first few rows of chairs closer together to give the impression of a packed tent. But it was empty all the way.

Here at the pictures taken at around 9.15pm.

The Lion Dance Troup kills time...pity they got washed out by the rain

Here is a video of the start of the rally showing the empty seats, from KeAdilan's website.





Alas, the pulling power of Erra Fazira and uber-celebrity Siti Nurhaliza (who sang in Malay AND Chinese - waitaminute, who the hell in Bangsar speaks Mandarin?) was not enough to bring out the crowds from where they were at Lembah Pantai. There was also somewhat misguidedly a Bhangra band, which as one of the observers sharing our VIP perch at Nirwana pointed out, is a bit silly considering Bangsar doesn't actually have a large Punjabi population.

Erra performs to the no-crowd

From our perch at Nirwana, we noisily made rude comments throughout Najib's rally - he is an appallingly nervous speaker, having to constantly wipe spittle from his mouth during his rally and he spoke in a ponderous fashion more appropriate to a kampung crowd than the sophisticated intellectuals that haunt Bangsar. It was shocking how he made remarks about Islamic states when he himself has been quoted as saying Malaysia is an Islamic state. Needless to say, I don't have much confidence in this 'Dopey' being the next PM. Or should that be Drool-Boy.

There were no loud cheers whenever he tried to get the crowd to respond and react to him and except for the BN chorus that cheered 'Hidup BN' on cue during select pauses in his speech, it was a tame crowd.

Shahrizat speaks but preaches mainly to the BN converted. View from Nirwana

Shot towards the end of the rally

Here's what the NST published this morning - obviously the rally was not a success, hence it didn't make the front page:


The Star buried the story in 2 paragraphs, with ZERO mention of the pathetically small turn out, which could not have numbered more than 100. Full points to Najib and Shahrizat though for keeping up the face and smiling all the way through despite the appalling turn out. I would have given a million bucks to have mind-reading powers at that point and know exactly what was on their minds.

In a disgraceful moment of manipulation, the national anthem was played, in an attempt to get everyone present to stand up (and thus show I suppose our respect for these politicians). Some people stood up, but a number of people (yours truly included) refused to stand, for obvious reasons of declining to be a part the propaganda. I shan't say anything about the inclusion of a prayer for the BN candidates by some ulama wearing a BN shirt.

Shahrizat promised Bangsar a police station of their own should she be returned with a heftier majority. It kind of conjures up images of majority comparison contests in the backrooms of the BN doesn't it? Except I guess they play who's majority is bigger, as opposed to whose appendage is bigger and pisses further.

There were a couple of BN cap wearing heavies on the next table who obviously didn't take too kindly to our sarcastic remarks about 'commissions' and 'altantuya' which periodically punctuated our conversation. And then it bucketed in the midst of Shahrizat's rally and we wondered if it was the PAS bomohs at work (but since it also rained in Lembah Pantai at the KeAdilan Rally, perhaps it was the result of both sides bomohs cancelling each other out!

Haris Ibrahim's Blog carries an account of the two Lembah Pantai ceramahs.
Another account from a blog, with comparison pix of the two ceramahs here