{"id":1619,"date":"2013-05-27T03:41:31","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T03:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1619"},"modified":"2013-05-27T03:41:31","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T03:41:31","slug":"suara-rakyat-505-or-sos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=1619","title":{"rendered":"Suara Rakyat 505 or SOS?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n25th May 2013: Suara Rakyat 505 (Suara Rakyat Suara Keramat)<\/b>, at Padang Timur, next to Taman Jaya.<\/p>\n


\nI took the Kelana Jaya LRT line (PUTRA line, for those of you who are old-school) to Taman Jaya, and disembarked there. I spotted a Rocket Man, a Malay chap. I’d later see Chinese PAS-serbys.<\/p>\n


\nCaught lightning!<\/p>\n


\nSales of masks were brisk.<\/p>\n


\nOh, and vuvuzelas. Somebody didn’t get the memo that these were banned for this gathering.<\/p>\n


\nFood, glorious food! This was a market of sorts of all sorts of Malaysian street food. It felt a lot more like a bazaar as you entered.<\/p>\n


\nI reached during Muslim prayer break so the field was not so filled – most were in Amcorp Mall, across the road, having dinner and prayers.<\/p>\n


\nSource of power.<\/p>\n


\nEnglish, Malay and Chinese text.<\/p>\n


\nThese guys were just raking it in.<\/p>\n


\nIf you haven’t figured it out, the theme for this gathering was black.<\/p>\n


\nMy eyes are blind, but I can see…<\/p>\n


\nCollecting funds.<\/p>\n


\nBig, colorful umbrellas!<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nOh, how they make counting so hard! (Picture can be clicked for a full-resolution view.)<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nEven more for you counters and insomniacs. (Picture can be clicked for a full-resolution view.)<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nNear the stage. (Picture can be clicked for a full-resolution view.)<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nA wider shot. (Picture can be clicked for a full-resolution view.)<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nAs much of the crowd as I can fit from as far away as I can get. (Picture can be clicked for a full-resolution view.)<\/p>\n


\nIced Milo! I had it.<\/p>\n


\nA close-up of the Malaysian Spring installation.<\/p>\n


\nNot sure who these guys are but I heard one of them is from Raja Lawak.<\/p>\n


\nArul<\/b> of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), who gives a very socialist speech. You can’t say there wasn’t variety in the speeches!<\/p>\n


\nAbby Abadi<\/b>, famous for being a member of girl-group Elite, one-season co-host of Roda Impian and one of the lead characters in Gerak Khas – now a member of Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS).<\/p>\n


\nAll this, under the light of the nearby Tenaga Nasional building. The gathering is also known as Blackout 505, because of some incidents of power outages during the counting of votes. Tenaga Nasional, the electricity provider for Peninsular Malaysia, has denied that there were any blackouts. If this is true, then somebody may have tampered with the ELCB (Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker) by flipping the switch, in each school where the lights went out. There were also police reports regarding blackouts – here’s one<\/a> and two<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nDato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan<\/b>, co-chairperson of BERSIH 2.0<\/a> gave a speech… but all attention was drawn to Anwar Ibrahim, Opposition Leader, as he walked to his seat on the stage.<\/p>\n


\nNow that that was settled, she continued.<\/p>\n


\nThis was the closest I could get from where I was, behind the sound engineer’s tent, without blocking people. All telephoto shots are with the Sony Alpha NEX-5 and Opteka\/Samyang 85mm F1.4. The wide shots used the Sony E 16mm F2.8 pancake lens.<\/p>\n


\nN. Surendran<\/b>, PKR vice-president and founder of Lawyers for Liberty, on stage with Gan Pei Nei<\/b>, state assemblywoman for Rawang.<\/p>\n


\nTian Chua<\/b>, PKR vice-president and Haris Ibrahim<\/b> (on the right) of Asalkan Bukan UMNO (ABU).<\/p>\n


\nIto<\/b> of Blues Gang sings their hit single, Apo Nak Dikato<\/b>. He came up earlier to sing another song penned for the current political climate.<\/p>\n


\nThese young dudes knew the song, too!<\/p>\n


\nNurul Izzah Anwar<\/b>, Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai.<\/p>\n


\nMat Sabu<\/b>, deputy president of PAS. He always has the most entertaining speeches.<\/p>\n


\nEveryone was asked to turn on their phones or lighters, as the spotlights went out. It was an amazing spectacle to see! I only wished I was way up on the hill, from where I was earlier, to take this same picture.<\/p>\n


\nThe night ended with Opposition Leader Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim<\/b>‘s speech.<\/p>\n

I will blog about my experience as a Polling Agent\/Counting Agent during the 13th General Elections of Malaysia soon – I just need more time to cross-reference the laws.<\/p>\n

More reading:
\nElection Cam-pain<\/a>
\nElection Math<\/a>
\nKL Wants One Too!<\/a>
\nKonsert BERSIH 8T: Inside<\/a>
\nKonsert BERSIH 8T: Outside<\/a>
\nDemocratic Promise<\/a>
\nBersih 3.0<\/a>
\nVote For Cleanliness!<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

25th May 2013: Suara Rakyat 505 (Suara Rakyat Suara Keramat), at Padang Timur, next to Taman Jaya. I took the Kelana Jaya LRT line (PUTRA line, for those of you who are old-school) to Taman Jaya, and disembarked there. I spotted a Rocket Man, a Malay chap. I’d later see Chinese PAS-serbys. Caught lightning! Sales […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pictures","category-rants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}