The Kuala Lumpur Traveler

Despite thousands attended, fuel hike Protes at Kelana Jaya Stadium was dull?

by CJCM on July 6th, 2008

I went to Kelana Jaya Stadium at about 12 noon today, where 1-Million-People Protes was being held. Surprisingly, there was no traffic jam, no police roadblock (ooo thats why no traffic jam), no FRU trucks and no army… at least not from where I was coming from, the IOI mall. There were just a couple thousands of people, most of them wearing red t-shirts that were seling like hot cakes. In fact, almost everything was selling like hot cakes. Total crowd? I don’t know but Malaysiakini says the organiser had reported 10,000 by noon. Pretty lousy attendance by Bersih rally standard. Where were the rest of the 1-million people?

Anyway, here are some of the photos I managed to capture:

The white tent was where invited speakers gave their speeches to quite a responsive crowd inside the stadium.

This section of the stadium is full….

But accross the stadium on the other side is almost empty. So is the field in the middle of the stadium.

Outside…. traders are laughing al the way to the bank. Almost everything selling like hot cakes, especially drinks and foods.

This nasi lemak stall must be one of the best selling stall of all the stalls. There was a long queue of shoppers… err protesters to fill their hungry stomach. I had mine after a long 20 minutes in the line. But that was one good nasi lemak I had with freshly fried spicy quail (burung puyuh goreng berempah)… definitely worth the queue. But at RM5 a plate, I should have protested the nasi lemak price hike instead… hehehe.


And this is another hot selling item of the day. By the time I finished my nasi lemak, the red t-shirts were already sold out. At RM15 a piece, I am sure the seller was also laughing all the way to his bank. I overheard his loud tele-conversation pleading to someone to keep sending more.. he must be talking to his supplier.

Protesters went to a nearby mosque performing Zohor prayer.

The mosque was packed with people in all sort of red-color shirts and dresses inside.

My two-cents : The protest was quite boring. I felt like I was going to a carnival instead of protesting a fuel price hike. Maybe it was a bad choice to have a day-long carnival in a stadium? Maybe we are so used to having FRU trucks around, high-chase drama with the police, people marching on the streets, tear gas and so on.

But hey… before you accuse me of being a pro-violence…. stop right there. I am not promoting violence or chaos or what so ever. I am just making a point here… and that is this protest is different from all other previous rallies we have all attended. Oppsss… did you?

Having said that, I hope tonight will be a bit better with much more crowds and just as calm…. but you never know what Pak Lah’s machinary is up to when it comes facing Anwar.

Share This

Related Stories

Protes also flip-flop? New venue is Kelana Jaya Stadium
Fuel hike: Pak Lah said no demonstration?
Anti-price hike rally venue and date changed
Anwar-Shabery debate: My two cents
Mamoth rally organized by Geramm brought forward to 5th July

POSTED IN: Rally