Ceramah

Due to the continuous double-standards practiced by the mainstream media - come on, just open up the pages and see how much of the news is devoted to the Opposition...virtually nil, unless it paints them in bad light! - as usual they have resorted to the old tried and tested approach of ceramahs. Now this would create an opportunity for the police (aka BN henchmen) to not issue permits in the name of public safety (as they have oft done in the past)...but nowadays the hell with the police!

There was a ceramah near my place last Tuesday, coinciding with the weekly pasar malam and taking the opportunity of an increased crowd. As expected it was organised by the DAP with PKR joining in a bit later...the candidates contesting in my area (PJ Utara parliamentary seat as well as the state seats) came up and gave a few speeches. Initially the crowd was a bit hesitant and quiet...wouldn't you after seeing a few police cars around? But as the speeches wore on the atmosphere got cheerier. I guess there were no more than 200 people there at its peak but still it was a fair turnout for the organisers.

One thing though...I would have expected the DAP candidates to be more eloquent in their speeches, and also more versatile and varied in the issues. There's no point having four or five speakers but all talking about the same issues. Who knows, the crowd could have gotten bigger if more 'noise' was made!! Another thing is that these candidates do not seem to talk about the issues in the area of concern - it would have been more interesting if they had mixed the national and local issues up. And they could have made better use of the multimedia system that was made available, small as it was. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. What they put up was just a montage of soundless-pictures; hardly the attention-grabbing presentations I'd expected.

There was also some talk about Teresa Kok making an appearance, but when I left close to 10 p.m. she had not shown up. She probably didn't. And I don't think Tony Pua was there either. Which was a shame...since he is the candidate for PJ Utara!

Anyway it was my very first ceramah - so it was a good experience. Next would be the opportunity to hear the big guns speak, to experience the difference...but I wonder whether they will show up here any time soon? All in all, ceramahs being the only way to go for the Opposition, this was indeed a wasted opportunity in my opinion; they could have made a bigger impact! Perhaps they are expecting their Internet assault to come up trumps?