Eunice’s Hulu Selangor Diary (Day 5): Cruising the Sleepy Hollow

Day 5: Cruising the sleepy hollow

Instead of following the group, I decided to cruise around town absorbing the development and ceramah-hop, not as a PKR member but as a non-partisan bystander.

The flags have now significantly increased, both Pakatan and Barisan flags. The first ceramah I saw was one by DAP – two tents combined with about 50 occupied chairs and about a hundred people there. YB Teng Chang Khim was speaking in Hokkien and the crowd loved his humour.

Even I laughed despite having heard the same thing being said many times before at other ceramahs. But because of my poor comprehension of the dialect, I could not really get what he was saying but the laughter of the crowd proved to be very infectious! His hand gestures of showing two fingers and five fingers, one after the other too, gave away what he was saying. When YB Lim Kit Siang showed up, the crowd stood up and clapped. Many rushed to shake his hands.

About 30 motorcyclists rode past the ceramah about twice, with Barisan flags and had distracted the crowd. YB Lim waited for the exhaust noises to subside before brushing them off and continuing with his speech.

There are more Barisan booths that are overflowing with flags, but with just 3-4 people sitting, chatting, and looking relaxed.

I passed by the “Karvinal Rakyat” I mentioned before and it still very brightly lit. Two lines of cars parked at the side of the road and that was at 11.00p.m. Are they having a ball in there?

It was difficult looking for a Barisan ceramah, and when I finally found one it was over. A lady welcomed me warmly when I approached and she invited me to help myself to he light refreshments. She told me to come back the next day and bring my family and friends, “Bawa ayah, mak, adik, abang dan semua kawan-kawan!” She proudly told me that Mukhriz Mahathir will be coming. When I told her I’m not a local, her smile faded but told me to come anyway. (I thought she might have seen through me). Another local proclaimed, “BN best!” and gave the thumbs up and said he thinks Pakatan only has 30% chance of winning this by-election.

Just around the corner was another DAP ceramah, in a huge hall. It was conducted in Mandarin. Again, the crowd loved the humour and the speaker’s charisma.

The people here seem to love by-elections. They have something to look forward to. Something different from their usual soap operas on TV or the routine gossiping at the market. The people who attended the ceramahs, who would likely to have been asleep at that hour, were all chatting excitedly about the upcoming by-elections. The youths are helping with the flags instead of bumming at a mamak stall and the best part of it is they do look like they’re enjoying themselves doing it for their party.