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Tuesday, 10 March 2009

5,000 Perakians give Speaker a standing ovation

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Hero’s welcome: Speaker Sivakumar is mobbed by ordinary Perakians - Photos by Kinta Kid

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The Perak Speaker acknowledges the crowd

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Keeping alive the flame of democracy, justice and freedom (Click to expand photo)

Kinta Kid reports from the first anniversary commemoration of the Pakatan in Perak last night:

The commemoration took place at the Tow Boo Keong Hall, a venue that actually has two halls separated by a temple in the centre. One of the halls was fitted with projectors for live viewing of the action from the main hall. The crowd was estimated at over 5,000 with the majority of them Chinese.

All the top guns were there such as ‘MB yang sah’ Nizar and Lim Kit Siang. But the hero of the night undoubtedly was the honourable Speaker V Sivakumar, the man who gave the country its Pokok Demokrasi after an emergency sitting of the Perak State Assembly was held beneath a raintree on 3 March 2008. Clearly appreciative of this person, the crowd in the hall rose and burst into applause as he arrived.

Throughout the night, the speeches carried the same theme: calls for a fresh election, Najib being the one behind the defections and why he should not be the next PM. The sentiment felt throughout the night was that the rakyat - at least those who were present - still want Pakatan in office. You could see it on their faces when they responded to the speeches whether made by the DAP, Keadilan or Pas speakers.

Lim Guan Eng was to arrive at around 11.00pm but I had left by then.

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