WP's Hougang rally on 30 April.
These pictures are taken from the WP’s Hougang Rally.
As u can see the crowd is enormous.
However, again, these scenes are unlikely to be shown by our “First World” media.
The sources of the pictures are here.
Here is an emotive excerpt of the reporting by Yawning Bread on this rally:
When the chanting began, I decided to linger to see what might happen. But I was the minority. Most of the others, however, chose to start leaving. Each of the human backs that had formed the wall in front of me swivelled around to walk past me.
It was then that I saw the face of the man who had been in front of me for the last few minutes. Turning around to depart, he was just 50 cm from my eyes. For a brief moment, we were face to face -- he, a gaunt old man with sunken eyes, a grey crewcut and white stubble.
He had his gnarled hand up against the corner of his eyes, smoothening out the tears. Yes, he had been crying.
Perhaps he hadn't had an easy life. Perhaps he had been a hawker or a house-painter, informal jobs with nothing by way of a pension. In his old age, he might have a mountain of financial worries. Worse yet, life and society as he knew it in his younger days were disappearing. The dialects are gone from official speak, in their place, not Mandarin, but Angmoh (English). Medical and hospital costs are stratospheric compared to what he had known 3 decades ago. Even taking a bus downtown costs more than taking the taxi in days gone by.
Meanwhile the richer have gotten richer. And the government talks the incomprehensible language of foreign investment, foreign talent, GDP, globalisation, creativity and the arts.
He would not have understood any of this, but he didn't mind that. What was important for him tonight, was that for once, a politician had articulated his sense of loss, his insecurity and his bewilderment at the galloping pace of change.
I don't know what the solutions are, he would have said. I don't understand half the stuff that ministers talk about anyway. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that tonight, I heard someone speak eloquently what I feel. And if he knows what I feel, then I can trust him to do something.
Of course, not everything can be fixed. I've lived long enough to know there will be no magic solutions. I'm not expecting any; just a little improvement is all I ask. Speak for me to the powers that be and give me hope. Do that, and I'll put my trust in you.
posted by at82 @ 5/01/2006 04:23:00 PM
5 Comments:
I was there at the WP rally today.
Fantastic performance. I was pretty impressed by the sheer size of the crowd and the vivacity of the speeches.
I am beginning to sense a irreversible tide of change amongst people's attitudes, although how this will result in a resounding mandate for the opposition is still uncertain.
Hi Beast:
Opposition's rallies always draw large no. of ppl.
But PAP is always returned on polling day.
Why?
The reason is simple, it is the people who stayed at home and watch our "First World" media that voted them back in.
So do yourself a favour bring your friends who are voting to one of the rallies and hear for themselves what the candidates have to say.
Because of walkovers, I'm deprived of my vote. But I do know of several votes that will 100% definitely go to the alternative parties in Aljunied. Whether its enough to secure a seat in parliament for the alternative parties remains to be seen on May 6. I hope against hope that it will be enough. Even if its not enough, at least that portion of the populace will have their voices heard and feel a sense of their own empowerment by casting their vote.
Tomorrow I shall be at the WP rally at Tampines, if nothing else pops up to disrupt my schedule.
My friends who came with me to the East Coast WP rally agreed: The WP candidates are not "riff raffs" as what LKY claims.
In fact, even the worst speaker that night far outstripped the best PAP speakers.
James Gomez struck me as a intellectual kind of guy, quite unlike the cheat the PAP has touted him to be.
Slyvia Lim's final entrance electrified the atmosphere, while Mr Low Thia Kiang's heart-felt speech really aroused the crowd.
Riff raffs? Hardly. Most likely a case of sour grapes.
Hi Beast:
Good, good.
Bring more of your friends there and let them see and hear for themselves what the candidates have to say.
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