Zaid Ibrahim hits the campaign trial in Manek Urai for Pakatan Rakyat and expounded on the many wrong doings of UMNO as having a monopoly control of all the media like TV broadcast, newsprint media and radio, the use of the Official Secret Acts (OSA) to protect the corrupt. Control of the judiciary and allowing corrupt pratices at high levels in the police.
He further stressed on the oil royalty that is owing to the people of Kelantan in excess of billions of ringgit and umno's silence on this royalty payment.
An award winning RotiCanai shop which is located in the main town of Kuala Kraiand is about 10km away to the Manek Urai district and a must stop location when making your way there.
These helicopters which ferried in the umnobigshots and one was carrying Muhyiddin the Deputy Prime Minister to the nomination center in KualaKrai while the people and opposition are caught in traffic jams and have to walk quite a distance on nomination day.
The grandiose Barisan National operation center in ManekUrai with tents and buildings that are fully air conditioned and equip with the latest and best of equipment and furniture for the comfort of umno members, umno is all about luxury and comfort and must have cost millions to set up and take note of the fully pack car parks which looks like a posh car showroom that comes with tents to protect their luxury cars from the sun. What a distinct difference from the PAS operation center at the old shophouse with just basic furniture and a couple of old stand fans, and in there you can see supporters sleeping or resting on mats placed on the bare cement floors.
The whisperer is curious of this container in the compound of the operation center that has labels that says 1Malaysia and he insist on stopping the car for this photo, hmm wonder whats inside... maybe there is 1 Malaysian in there.
This is not your everyday police pondok, we were not allowed in to the compound so the shots you see are all taken from outside the perimeter of this huge area with tents and huge factory like buildings and we saw four big factory buildings and some are of double volumes and one look like up to 3 storey high. You can never be able to comprehend all this trouble and expense of millions of ringgits just for a small state by election with 12,293 voters.
All the buildings and tents are fully covered and are big enough to house jets and nuclear missiles, this compound looks intimidating and are fully guarded with armed police and guards. My estimate of the size of this area is easily over 30 acres of land.Some of the locals say that ManekUrai has some 5000 fully armed personnel and even at 2100 uniformed personnel as reported by the press it is still a big number for this sparsely populated district consisting of planters and farmers with numerous kampongs deep into the woods but why all this buildings and there is already quite a big police station in the district.
Can never really understand all this huge temporary facility just for eight days from nomination to election and must have cost the government millions of ringgit. This is mind boggling!
The guru calls out; "wake up!" at 4.30 am and we had to struggle out of bed at this hour before the cock crows and out in to the 4wd we were and the journey to Manek Urai for nomination day, the drive took about an hour or so and i could continue my sleep at the back of the pajero. We arrived at Kuala Krai the main town of Manek Urai district at about 5.30 am and went knocking on doors looking for roti canai and found a shop just about to open and we had to wait a bit and was later served freshly pack nasi lemak and good kopi-o, that is exactly what is needed to really wake up.
After breakfast we set out to the meeting point of the old Masjid Al-Jahur of Kuala Krai town where the PAS supporters numbers some 5000 and at the nomination center the PAS' supporters are easily above 13000 strong and the Umno' supporters at about 3000 only, we will let the pictures tell the story;
[waiting for the shop to open before the cock crows]
[Traffic Jam just as the sun rise] [on the way to the Masjid, crowds are building up and note the traffic jam]
[Pakatan big-wigs at the Masjid]
[Don't play play with this Pakatan Rakyat fan]
[Kickdefella meets zorro]
[Datuk Zaid amongst the supporters in the march to the Nomination Centre from the Masjid Al-Jahur meeting point][Pas supporters swarming in from everywhere towards the nomination centre]
[Tok Guru arrives with great cheers from the crowd]
[The FRU was there reported to be over 2000 strong]
[Umno VIPs at nomination center not looking very happy] [some umno supporters]
[And the candidates are PAS Mohd Fauzi Abdullah and Umno Tuan Aziz Tuan Mat]
The campaigning starts today and we have been scheduled to cover some ceramahs later this evening and will be back with more reports.
Here at last after an 8 hours trip from Kuala Lumpur, we left about 12 this afternoon and finally made it here to Kota Bahru, Kelantan at 8 pm. The journey in the Blue Blitz is as usual an exciting event for the Barisan Rakyat Bloggers in any election in the country as we take them all as a sacred act of democracy for all Malaysians, be it a state or parliamentary seat and this is where the people becomes the boss.
Our flight team in the Blue Blitz are; Captain zorro, the pilot is the whisperer and our navigator is myself (hawkeye). Our take off as scheduled for 10.3o am was delayed due to a few slight pre take off check, there were some technicalities with the toilet and it have to be check before take off and the captain had some key incident and had to report back to home control and that took some delay nevertheless we arrived on schedule for dinner as hosted by the honourable Datuk Zaid Ibrahim to the best meal Kelantan has to offer and it was most wonderful and our tummy most happy.
The trip was something new for me as this is my first time through the East - West highway, well i wouldn't call it a highway it was more like the old trunk road with single carriageway like the "long and winding road" and up and down across the main range however it was pretty and scenic except for when we pass through quite a few timberlogging concession site which made us frown quite a bit and especially quite near the dams and lakes too, it will be a recommended route if you had not been there.
Our trip took us along Kuala Kangsar and we stop for a delicious fish lunch at Lenggong and we had a 1 kg of steam Jelawat fish which is also called the Sultan fish by the locals, maybe it was that one of the earlier Sultan had enjoyed the fish.
After a long trip and as we are expected to be present at the nomination hall in Manek Urai tomorrow morning and are to be ready by 5am, it is best to let the photos do the talking.
Watch out for our on the spot reporting on nomination day tomorrow from Manek Urai which is about a 45 minutes trip from Kota Bharu.
Check out other reports from zorro and the lone whispere HERE and HERE.
PS. Out of battery to my laptop check the links for more photos.
The memorial to Michael Jackson at the wharf was a hit and my thanks goes to Serena of the wharf and zorro for making it happen, the Barisan Rakyat Bloggers and Supporters for making the event a success. And many thanks to Lyn in editing and converting the videos without which they will be dancing in the dark.
Some people told us that this is possibly the first memorial tribute to the Superstar in Kuala Lumpur, well we don't know that but maybe it is.
We celebrated Michael's music and saw the many contributions he made to humanity like "Heal The World" which is not only a song but an established worldwide charitable foundation, We saw how Michael dance against racism and bigotry as portrayed through the many music videos and Michael even had songs against bad and oppressive governments, police brutality and tyranny.
And we would like to share this video here (lyrics as below). (MUST WATCH)
They Don’t Care About Us
Skinhead, deadhead, everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation, everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dogfood, everybody´s gone mad
Refrain:
All I wanna say is that
They donït really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don´t really care about us
Beate me, hate me, you can never break me
Will me, thrill me, you can never kill me
Jew me, sue me
Everybody do me - kick me, bite me
Don´t you black or white me
Refrain
Tell me what has become of my life
I have a wife and two children who love me
I am the victim of police brutality, now
Iïm tired of beinï the victim of hate
You´re rapin´ me of my pride, oh for God´s sake
I look to heaven
To fulfill itïs prophecy
Set me free
Skinhead, deadhead, everybody´s gone bad
Trepidation, speculation, everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dogfood
Black man, blackmail
Throw the brother in jail
Refrain
Tell me what has become of my rights
Am I invisible 'cause you ignore me?
Your proctamation promised me free liberty, now
I´m tired of bein´ the victim of shame
They´re throwin´ me in a class with a bad name
I can´t believe this is the land from which I came
You know I really do hate to say it
The government don´t wanna see
But if Roosevelt was livin´
He wouldn´t let this be, no no
Skinhead, deadhead, everybody´s gone mad
Situation, speculation, everybody litigation
Beat me, bash me, you can never trash me
Hit me, kick me, you can never get me
Refrain
Some things in life they just don´t wanna see
But if Martin Luther was livin´ he wouldn´t let this be
Shinhead, deadhead, everybody´s gone bad
Situation, segregation, everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dogfood
Kick me, bite me
Don´t you wrong or right me
FOREIGN investment in Malaysia has plummeted this year, Trade Minister Mustapa Mohamed said on Thursday after the government announced liberalisation measures aimed at luring investors.
'Foreign direct investment for 2008 was RM46 billion (S$18.8 billion) and for January to May this year we have only seen RM4.2 billion,' Mr Mustapa told reporters.
Mr Wahad Hamid, deputy head of the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority, said the investment climate was extremely tough despite a strong performance by Malaysia in the three previous years.
'Last year, total investment was about RM62 billion but this year we are only targetting half of that, about RM30 billion,' he told reporters.
