9 pm latest! Penang rally, going on right now, draws 30,000

Malaysiatoday
Thursday, 06 March 2008

George Town, March 6 -- The Democratic Action Party rally in Penang -- which is going on right now -- has drawn more than 30,000 people, by conservative estimates.

Police sources had earlier told The Malaysian Insider that a crowd of "easily 15,000" could be expected tonight at the Han Chiang school field here, the second-last night ceramahs can be held before Saturday's polling. However, the crowds in Penang have just kept swelling in numbers, leaving even a veteran political observer to describe it as "amazing".

There are frequent cries of "Just change it" in Hokkien.

The crowd is mainly Chinese, a mixed bag of young and old, with pockets of Malays and Indians. About a quarter of them are wearing red, as called upon by DAP party leaders to show its strength in numbers.

The speakers are DAP leaders Lim Kit Siang, his son and secretary-general of the party Lim Guan Eng and party veteran Karpal Singh. PKR's only representative in Parliament until it was dissolved for these polls, Wan Azizah, the wife of Anwar Ibrahim, is also scheduled to speak. Anwar, who was in Singapore yesterday and believed to be in Kuala Lumpur tonight, is not able to make it for the rally.

There are 3 giant video screens, lending the air of a rock concert to the night, with a giant moving crane for the cameraman feeding the picture to the screens.

Pictures of the rally are expected to be posted on The Malaysian Insider late tonight. - THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER