Haris Ibrahim reports: The Sons of Adam

posted by din merican in Kuala Terengganu–January 15, 2009

Haris Ibrahim reports on DAP Ceramah at Ocean Restuarant, Kuala Terengganu:

DAP hosted some 600 Chinese to dinner again last night (January 14, 2009) at the Ocean Restaurant.

Diners in the hall

Diners on the beachside

Non-diners on the roadside

Well DAP hosted, but the diners paid for it.

Yes, RM30 each.

That’s the difference between the DAP ceramahs with that of UMNO’s.

UMNO has to roll out the freebies and ferry in mercenaries from out of town to make up numbers at their ceramah.

Or hold lucky draws like they did at Cerong Lanjut the night before.

Motorcycle and LCD TV were up for grabs.

And after the goodies were grabbed, the crowd disappeared.

With DAP, people contribute funds to be able to listen to their speakers.

UMNO should ponder over this.

Some of you may be wondering by now what all this has to do with the title of this post.

It’s to do with what one of the speakers said.

There were quite a few speakers today,

but I’m going to focus on just two.

Datuk Zaid was a surprise guest. And whilst he was not intending to speak, he obliged YB LKS who urged him to say a few words. And what powerful words they were!

Zaid touched on the need to move away from the politics of race, to move away from  parties that strived only to look out for the interests of their own.

He said he was concerned about the matter of race relations in the country but was pleased to note that that Pakatan Rakyat partners were seriously working to forge a coalition that looked into the interests of all the rakyat without focussing on ethnicity.

He advised the voters of Kuala Terengganu to think carefully on who they would vote for. He would not tell them who to vote for.

If it were him, though, he said, he would vote for Pakatan Rakyat, to the loud applause of the crowd.

The second speaker was Nik Aziz, who I was told by one of the PAS folk in attendance, insisted on attending even though he was unwell.

Whilst waiting for his arrival, someone in the audience expressed some concern about Nik Aziz’s attendance, given that beer was being consumed in the hall. He said Nik Aziz never entered any premises where alcohol was being served.

He arrived to a rousing welcome from those in attendance.

Nik Aziz being greeted at the entrance

Would not enter cos alcohol was being served? The man partook of the food specially prepared for him!

Presumably because of his poor health, he did not say much, but the little that he said meant so much to me.

He said race considerations had no place in Islam.

Even the Holy Prophet, he stressed, was explicit in that the Arabs were not to enjoy any superiority over others on account of their race.

He emphasised again and again thatIslam had reached China some one thousand years ago, well before Islam reached the Malays here.

He alluded to the verse in the Holy Qur’an that narrated that all of mankind were descended from Adam and Eve.

And then what he said left me with a lump in my throat. I’ll translate this as best as I can.

“The Chinese are sons of Adam. The Malays, too, are sons of Adam”

I’ll end this post with more photos from the evening.

YB Anwar Tan, I’m told, delivered a powerful speech. I didn’t understand a word. A BR blogger who did will be posting about this. Will alert you when he does.

Who wants to say now that PAS and DAP will never be able to get along?

YBs Tio and Chong Eng

Extreme left is Phang. Next to him is Man. The one on the extreme right and the one next to him are. like Phang, Chinese. They have one thing in common. All are members of the PAS supporters club

Some of the Barisan Rakyat team listening intently

I met Tan (extreme right ) a couple of nights ago. Lively discussion. Tan, you owe me an e-mail!

This couple, who now reside in the UK, and are Penangites, are in KT to see and hear for themselves the change that’s taking place.

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