They are stopping PKR's ceramahs now in Ijok!

Wow! Talk about being low down, dirty, pathetic, and outright despicable! Since they can't win the people over with their vote buying and stupid concerts, now they're getting the PDRM (that's the police) to "help" in their campaign by stopping PKR ceramahs around Ijok! Wow! This has got to be the first! Excerpts from Malaysiakini below:

Police halt opposition ceramah
Beh Lih Yi
Apr 24, 07 3:43pm

The police stopped three ‘ceramah’ (talks) by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) in Ijok last night claiming that they were illegal gatherings.

In the first incident, policemen, including members of the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU), barricaded a road leading to a PKR ceramah in Taman Pancaran, Bestari Selatan.

The ‘ceramah’ was to be held at a PKR member’s house at around 9.30pm and the opposition party’s advisor Anwar Ibrahim was among those slated to give a speech. However, the police blocked the road as early as 8pm.

There were about 10 police trucks stationed near the venue.

Some 50 metres away, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was addressing about 200 people at a Barisan Nasional (BN) function.

(for full article, click here)

It seems that the police also stopped two other ceramahs in Batang Berjuntai and Sg Darah, and the common thread among these three places? Najib was scheduled to appear in BN functions near the same location.

Talk about "fairness" in running the elections when the EC's first statement on this was that police permits were required (supposedly as per the Elections Offences Act). If that is the case, why the other PKR ceramahs which do not have police permits were not stopped? This has been disputed by Latheefa Koya (PKR Youth Leader and lawyer) who said the Elections Offences Act does not stipulate any such rule. To digress a bit, the Act does state clearly that "treating", the act of dishing out food and drinks by candidates for the purpose of canvassing votes, is punishable. Anyone want to warrant a guess as to what action was taken against the MCA candidate during the last Machap by-election?

(Source: Oriental Daily, pp A7)

So, other than paid goons to intimidate, threaten and assault people of different political persuasion, it seems like that is not enough and they have to call in the PDRM to do more of their dirty job for them.

Below some responses of locals to this pathetic attempt (quoted from Malaysiakini):

“I don’t know why the police are doing this if they want to be fair. We just want to listen to what they (opposition leaders) have to say, BN will lose support (if they do such things),” said 39-year-old electrician A Balakrishnan.

“The locals are frightened because they are not used to this kind of atmosphere,” added the Batang Berjuntai resident.

Estate worker Tioh Jioo Hin, 24, (photo) who had come to the ‘ceramah’ with his father, accused the authorities of practicing double standards.

Pointing to the BN ‘ceramah’ being held nearby, he said: “See, they have placed chairs all over the place and people can’t even walk past [...] but we don’t even have chairs here (at the PKR ‘ceramah’) and still got chased away.”

Hopefully these dissatisfactions will turn to votes for PKR.

Malaysia Boleh indeed!