It was a sight to behold, a sea of lit-up phone screens waving in unison in the night by thousands sitting and standing on the soggy open ground next to the Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Mosque in Putrajaya on Thursday night.It had just rained. The lights were switched on several times by almost everyone present at a Pakatan Harapan campaign rally as former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad spoke.
I was, naturally, surprised by the turnout of several thousand people right smack in Putrajaya, home of the civil servant.
Most of them do not attend ceramahs organised by the opposition for fear of being associated with the political opponents of the ruling Barisan Nasional. Many fear they may be penalised at work: there are stories of civil servants having got into trouble with their superiors or the powers-that-be for supporting the opposition.
One or two ministers have even warned civil servants against it. This has been the case from the time of Mahathir.
I was surprised not just by the size of the crowd but also their response to the speakers: the applause, the shouts of “Hidup Tun”, “Reformasi”, “Alahu Akbar” and party slogans, and the phones lighting up each time the master of ceremony indicated that it be done.
Even the speakers commented on the size of the crowd. But I know from experience that huge turnouts at opposition ceramahs and rallies can be misleading. The crowd may just be there to hear what Dr Mahathir and the other speakers have to say. It may not result in votes.
But there was a good crowd on Thursday and Pakatan Harapan speakers did not miss the opportunity to urge civil servants to stand up and be counted, and not to fear reprisals if they were to vote for the opposition, reassuring them that their vote was secret.
One of Mahathir’s lawyers, Haniff Khatri Abdulla, said civil servants’ duty was to be loyal to king and country and serve the people, and that they were not government servants beholden to the prime minister. This was the first time I had heard him speak, and I thought he did a remarkable job.
The DAP’s Segambut candidate, Hannah Yeoh, speaking fluent Malay, urged civil servants to leave their comfort zone and vote for change. She invited her former teacher, a Malay man, to come up on stage saying one reason she became the first woman speaker (of Selangor state) in the country was because “this civil servant” came out of his comfort zone to support her.
At the start of the ceramah, long before Mahathir arrived, the crowd stood at attention to sing the Negaraku. A young man next to me, who sang with a hearty voice, said the last time he sang the Negaraku was in school, nine years ago. He said he felt goose bumps singing the national anthem again.
He was particularly impressed with the short speech of Nik Omar, the son of the late and much lamented Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat. I was, too. Nik Omar, had quit PAS to join Amanah. He spoke in a soft, calm and reassuring manner, almost as if he was talking to a group of friends and not addressing an election rally.
When he took to the stage, there were shouts of “Alahu Akbar” from some in the crowd. Nik Omar’s message was simple but significant. He said Islam called for respect for everyone, even those of other religions. Malaysians, he said, must have mutual respect. Everyone in the country needed to be treated equally well and be allowed to share in the wealth of the nation. And the nation needed a change.
As soon as Mahathir arrived, shouts of “Hidup Tun” filled the night air, and again when he went up the stage. He started off by looking all around at the crowd and saying he had thought that people of Putrajaya — meaning civil servants and their families — were “cowards”, implying that they were not, because they had flooded the area.
Soon, he had the excited crowd mesmerised. Mahathir, who turns 93 this year, did not show his age, except for a few coughs now and then.
Once in front of the crowd, the Pakatan Harapan chairman, playing a new role as opposition leader, became energised, especially when speaking about Prime Minister Najib Razak and the current situation. He seemed like a much younger version of himself, someone I had heard numerous times when he was prime minister.
When I told my 91-year-old mother, she said: “He should be resting, not travelling all over and giving speeches. How long can his body take it? I know how it is when the body slows down.
“He has done his part already as prime minister. I cannot understand why he still needs to do all this. He should be resting.”
I reported to her what Mahathir had told the media: that he had intended to retire and take it easy but that people kept asking him to do something to put the nation on the right track again; that he wanted to save the nation; that he could not stand by idly and watch it being “destroyed”.
She shook her head.
Perhaps this is one reason that people are attracted to Mahathir’s ceramahs. They want to understand why this nonagenarian is again at the forefront of politics after retiring in 2003.
A Malay civil servant in his 30s whom I met at the ceramah said he was curious as to why Mahathir was running himself into the ground. He admitted that civil servants did not want to be seen at opposition ceramahs and he himself had been careful to keep away. But this time, he said, he decided to throw away pretences — and fear — and attend Mahathir’s talk.
I don’t know how many of them at the ceramah were civil servants.
Even if only half of those present were civil servants, and even if half of that number feel the way the young civil servant feels, it is significant. It means the civil servant has plucked up the courage to attend an opposition ceramah. It means the civil servant may be seriously considering his voting options.
It means the lights that I saw on Thursday in Putrajaya may be beacons of hope for Harapan.
And that’s not good news for the Barisan Nasional.
A Kathirasen is an executive editor at FMT.
The views expressed by the writer are not necessarily those of FMT.
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