PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim combined visits to Kedah and Perlis on Friday in a four-stop swing where he encountered crowds whose relative poverty provided a ready audience for his populist themes of oil price reduction and free schooling.

At the first stop at Kampong Sungai Kep in the Lubuk Merbau district of the parliamentary constituency of Padang Terap, Anwar told a crowd of about 500 mostly Felda settlers that “colossal wastage and corruption in government” led to higher prices for fuel and other essential items.

anwar ibrahim and pkr keadilan and crowd 210507“A government in which PKR plays a role would save those costs and bring down the cost of living for you, the ordinary people of the country, who continue to live in poverty after fifty years of Merdeka,” he said.

Padang Terap is one of the areas in Peninsula Malaysia that has a disproportionately large number of people who are categorised as hardcore poor – those subsisting on less than RM250 a month.

“What does Merdeka mean to you when rising prices eat into the higher incomes you earn from the better prices fetched by the rubber and oil palm you grow?

“What does it mean to you when your children cannot make it out of the poverty of their environment to aspire to a better life through access to quality education?” thundered Anwar in a 15-minute speech to essentially party supporters who will be voting in the state ward of Pedu, which is certain to be contested by PKR. Padang Terap is likely to be contested by Pas.

At the next stop in Naka, also in Pedu, a crowd of about 2,000 padi farmers and petty traders with a significant proportion of Siamese among them, listened as Anwar spoke of PKR’s inclusive vision for all Malaysians.

“Poverty has no race, it erects no barriers between people because once you are immersed in it, your struggles leave you no time, leave you too tired, to separate you from others who are similarly struggling like you.

“I know that condition, I know that feeling,” said Anwar to murmurs of approval for the empathy his remarks conveyed to the crowd.

“That’s why PKR does not distinguish between the Malay poor, Chinese poor, Indian poor, Siamese poor, Dayak poor and Kadazan poor. It calls poverty bad and wants it removed urgently with government help of course.”

Protecting Chinese education

Anwar paused briefly in Anak Bukit, in the parliamentary seat of Kuala Kedah, where he fielded questions from a small band of reporters from Chinese and Indian vernacular papers and government-controlled media.

He told them seat-sharing negotiations for Kedah and Perlis among the opposition parties were complete at the state level, awaiting finalisation at the level of the parties’ top leadership that would be done in Kuala Lumpur soon.

After maghrib and tazkirah prayers in Kuala Kedah, Anwar was off to Kangar where he met some 200 Chinese voters at Dewan Persatuan Chee Yang Khor. He reiterated PKR’s support for Chinese education as a human right while emphasizing that all citizens should speak and write competently in Bahasa Malaysia.

“Your right to Chinese education will be protected and enhanced in such a way that it will not separate you from others who know a lot of Bahasa and English. Under PKR leadership a thousand cultural flowers will bloom in a way that enriches and threatens no one,” he told his audience.

Anwar drew all these themes together at the final stop in Titicai, in the Utan Aji district of Kangar, before a crowd of about 14,000 who were largely Malay but with smattering of Chinese and a sprinkling of Indians.

He spoke for 75 minutes, telling his audience that the Barisan Nasional had exceeded his sold-by date and that voters in the coming general election will register their pent-up frustration at the higher costs of living, rates of crime, corruption and inefficiency.

“The BN government is like an overdrawn bank account. Voters will bounce it out,” he said.