Dear Sir,
Baradan Kuppusamy has reached too capacious a conclusion based on scanty evidence when he wrote in “An evening with Anwar Ibrahim" that the PKR leader is drawing small crowds of Malays to his ceramah. Surely, the numbers that turned up for Anwar at his recent ceramah at Wangsa Maju and Bandar Tun Razak are not to be taken as representative of the norm.
In late December and January, no less than Malaysiakini itself reported that in Kedah, Penang and Perlis, Anwar drew crowds of Malays numbering in the thousands. He has also drawn sizeable crowds of Chinese and Indian listeners to his gatherings, particularly along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
To say that Anwar is not a draw among the Malays is a rather strange conclusion given recent reports in Malaysiakini and hearsay. Baradan may well be right if he said that large crowds at ceramah do not necessarily translate into victories at the ballot box, but to say that Anwar is not a magnet among Malay listeners is to gainsay the evidence assembled by Malaysiakini and sundry others who came, saw and were impressed.
Sincerely,
Capt. Yusof Ahmad
(Footnote: I very rarely write letters to the news media and this is one which for some reason did not get published).
Right on the money, Captain!
ReplyDeleteLet's wait for their response.