Singaporeans in Solidarity with Malaysians

Michelle took an interest in this event which was organised by a guy called Jolovan Wham to show support of Malaysians protesting against the recent Malaysia GE 2013 results. So we went down that day but we could not stay long as we had a prior dinner appointment over in Kovan. She was quite excited to go there and was all dressed out in black in support of the event as was I.

We arrived around 1840hrs which was 40 minutes after the supposed starting time of 1800hrs. Not much happened as people were gathering at a table set up at the near the grass mound in Hong Lim Park. They were writing messages but Michelle was too shy to write anything. The crowd was not as large as the last 2 Hong Lim Park events that I attended organised by Gilbert Goh but there was a gathering of over 100 people. I think people do support their fellow Malaysians across the borders somewhat due to a lot of interactions we have with our neighbours and our historical ties with them.

Like Malaysia, Singapore has had a ruling party that had a long run and recent events in both countries have really brought some discontent amongst its citizens to the fore and the younger generations of these 2 countries are expressing it more publicly. When will change finally come and will it come around the same time for both nations? Only time would tell. We did not stay until the night vigil and singing of the national anthems of both nations due to the dinner appointment.

Malaysia Decides: GE 2013

A Day of Reckoning

Early in the morning 0745 we headed towards Michelle's polling station. As she knew her room number to ballot, she was done within 15 minutes. For those who had to checking with polling officials on such details, they were in for a long wait. Meanwhile her mum and I hung around a nearby coffee shop.

Once Michelle was done, we headed down towards her mum's polling station which was located near Jalan Mersing. Being the skillful driver that Michelle was, we had some small issues to getting there as the dual carriage way was packed with cards on both sides. Her mum cut the queue by saying "leg pain" and finished balloting within 15 minutes as well. The queue at her mum's polling station has no option of fast track for those who knew their room number. After all this was done we headed to the old house. The dogs were having a respite from the morning sun by sleeping in and behind a cement pipe.

Here we can see the indelible ink being used to mark Michelle's finger. Supposedly the silver nitrate present in the ink will prevent it from being washed off by ordinary means (water, soap, thinner, etc). This is something I would love to see if it is so.

Said good bye to Kluang and we left to head back to Johor Baru. As we left traffic at Kluang was experiencing slow traffic on the route back. Here is a shot of a big wall with the word Kluang that you can see on your way out of the town centre.

A downpour soon followed and things were so intense that at one point due to the heavy winds and rain, it was like a pail of water was being thrown at the windscreen every second or so. Visibility degraded to a point where we could not see more than 10 metres a head of the car. 2 separate accidents were see on was on the same side of the road as us and the other was across the other side.

After the downpour, fog or fine mist drifted around the hills surrounding the North-South Expressway. Looks like purple cloud mountain?

Back in Johor Baru, you can see whole rows of BN flags flanking sides of the road and I believe there must be more flags of political parties all over the place compared to the quantity of National Flags during their National Day period.

Surprisingly, getting through immigration was smooth even though we were trying to cross back around 3:30pm which was really a relief for me as I was expecting a deluge of people at the immigration side. The causeway link buses were a little slow in coming so there was quite a bit of wait for them.

Now I am back at home, watching CNA slipstream of the polls. This is going to be interesting since it is the closest fight in the history of Malaysia and voter turn out is the best in their history.


[Update: 06th May 2013]

The Pakatan Rakyat have done its best and the people of Malaysia have decided, BN retains power but PR's wins in certain areas certainly show that they are truly a force to be reckoned with especially DAP who scored their best results yet. I guess now on everyone's mind (other than accusations of fraudulent vote results) is what does Najib mean by a National Reconciliation? Hopefully it does not result in harsh crackdowns and anything else of that sort.

The Eve Before Malaysia Decides: GE 2013

Ubah (Change) is a coming to Bolehland?

Woke up early morning at 04:45. Quickly got the rest of the essentials packed and left the house to catch the 0536hrs first train at Tanah Merah to Bugis. Even though it was the first train of the day, by the time it was at Tanah Merah MRT Station, almost all seats were taken as the train was the model with some all standing cabins. Managed to find 2 seats and proceeded to sit down. Michelle commented that so early in the morning there should not be any aunties on thr train since she was sitting on the reserved seat. True to form, at Bedok MRT a whole pack of 5-6 aunties came on board. 2 of them did a 5-metre dash towards the 2 remaining vacant seats like their lives depended on it and then some. Mentally sighing I nudged Michelle and we both gave up our seats to them.

Was not long before we reach Bugis. By then a light drizzle started, the sky was still dark and the morning wind chilly. It was not really surprising to me that quite a handful of fellow MRT commuters were also heading towards Queen Street. Took the Singapore-Johore Express this tine round as the Causeway Link looked liked it was not in service yet. The queue was thankfully short in comparison to normal and the journey to Woodlands immigration was uneventful.

Blur sotongs in orange this time tested the patience of ICA and everyone. Somehow I always encounter people having issues with the automated system whenever I get to woodlands immigration. I guess it will be many years to come before everyone in Singapore become accustomed to it.

Reached iskandar at 0640. Crossed Malaysian customs 0643. Chop chop today. Was even faster than Michelle die to failure of automated system. Had breakfast at KFC eating my usual favourite breakfast burger and ice milo. Arrangements were made to borrow Michelle's recently sold car for the trip back this time. Someone has to really assess the medium to long term plan on how the semi-regular Kluang return trips would be done.

The buyer of Michelle's car has generously loaned us the car for the next few days. The tar journey to Kluang was more or less uneventful and we met up with her parents at a coffee shop Where they were eating breakfast with their friends. Eating over there is almost a national pastime and once we linked up with them all carefully laid plans can be discarded for dice rolls. After the breakfast, we headed over to the "new"' house.

Aircon. Sweet Jesus. Do not EVER let it stop. Hustings are quite aggressive at Kluang. Posters and banners are almost everywhere. strung out in long drapes of cloth like string across trees, posters wrapped around trees like sarong and party flags hung on string like laundry. Definitely a tremendous amount money is spent on producing these materials. I guess it must be like this in all the different states and it makes for some very colourful livery and outdoor decoration.

The elections this time is considered to be possibly the closest ever in the history of Malaysia with the stakes being so high, naturally crazy rumors abound and Michelle's father has advised us to quickly vote and get out of bolehland. There is some belief that violence might break out in some areas with gangsters paid by various parties to cause a ruckus. People are also afraid to stay out late in the night. Rumours abound that once most ballots have been cast, those unused ballots papers in the late afternoon will get...erm some "assistance" and be magically filled up and stuffed into the ballot boxes.

Sounds like tomorrow will be interesting. Let me end this entry with some pictures of the streets of Kluang. Just great. Let us hope everyone here gets home safe and sound. No scratch that, let me hope I get home safe and sound!

The DAP rocket is used to pimp the PR coalition flags of DAP, PAS and PKR. To be truthful I think it is quite eye catching.

Not to be outdone, the UMNO shows their super-sized and super-repetitive flag.

For some reason this form of poster is quite popular. Drapes of long cloth strung out on poles like virtual barriers and guide on the road. Due to the colour scheme I can help but think it looks like Singapore Police Force's "crime scene, do not enter" tape barriers.

This form of poster just strikes me as somewhat of an overkill. But maybe that is the point, to be really in your face and takes up your field of view.

I like this picture because it show just how much posters and flags are used to try to capture the eyes of the voters. In fact I think people will barely notice the left arrow sign amongst all the sea of blue.

I could not capture fully this interesting scene but basically the road for several tens of metres leading up to this bridge had flags all the way. On the left it was PAS flags, on the right BN ones. Then at this bridge they are all mashed up in deadly embrace for the voters' eyes. I guess these flags would help shield those crossing on the bridge from the deadly UV rays of the sun.

[Update 04th April, 21:39]
Just came back from dinner at Michelle's old place to the new place. As we drove back, we came up along a DAP rally car I guess is what I should call it. The guys in there were enthusiastically waving 3 DAP flags. My only worry was if they were not careful and hit some power cables or something as they drove along the narrow roads. They were shouting "ubah!" along the way as well.

On our way back, we also went by a DAP ceramah/rally with loads of people wearing yellow shirts. The crowd is very huge. Probably at least 100 metres away from the speakers there are still people crowding and listening to them. People as they drove by the rally sounded their horns to give their support to DAP. Here is a distant shot of the rally from as Michelle drove us back. Organisers had people the ground with light sticks to guide traffic as it was a dual carriage way at the rally site and there were cars parked neatly at either side and these parked cars occasionally came out and needed much help and guidance to get out without causing an accident. Here is a shot of the rally in progress. As Ali G said, MASSIVE.