Rarely at Rally Again - WP Serangoon

This time it was a more well-thought out process, no last min dinner engagements to distract me from really listening to what the WP has to share. I was glad to be there early, because at 615pm, the roads around the Serangoon stadium were tight! The parking along the roads were FULL and I got a call from Otterman telling me that the crowd was buildiing up! Imagine all this one hour before the rally even starts! And people say that Singaporeans are always late.... I guess if its for something that really touches them, they'll try very hard to be early.

Driving around the area, we saw something that strike us...

it makes us wonder what are the possibilities that got these 3 posters to be in this position? The two below from WP seems to be squished by the one poster at the nice eye-level at the top. How did this happen? hmm....

Thank God that we only searched around for a parking lot for only 20mins, 10mins less than previous experience but it was scary enough as my trusty proton is showing signs of stress by having a slightly warmer thermostat readings than normal. We quickly marched over to the nearest coffeeshop and grab a few buns and glutanious rice to eat.

With the huge crowd gathering, I was getting anxious if we will ever make it to the rally in good timing, get a good "seat" and be able to find some food to fill our tummies.... Luckily, my fears were unfounded! The huge crowd gathering on the roads were just a demonstration of "narrow" the passage ways are, there's ample space on the field. YES, we joined the die-hard fans of Otterman, Ladybug & C on the field and I stole the half piece of newspapers that Otterman was seated on heh.... He's such a gentleman.

Check out the crowd, the stadium's seating is FULL already... what time did these people started to come in??? 2pm?? or they camped overnight? Such glamourous seatings! got shelter, no mud. Lucky folks...


the field is just filling up and we're like directly in front of the grand stand, barely 20m away from the barriers. Super cool.


here's a video to show the crowd while there's still good daylight:
Pre-Rally Atmosphere


In 20mins around 650pm, the stadium's atmosphere was very high, the crowd was very excitable. Every small bit of "wayang" got them excited and cheering of "Worker's Party" goes on for a few rounds. Here's picture of a home-made banner causing a huge stir on the ground:


To create some form of orderliness, many supporters situated in the front were asked to sit down, newspapers were shared out, plastic bags etc. One kind lady, I presume she's a hawker was sharing her trusty brown-waterproof-wrap-hokkien-mee paper all around. She must have dished out easily 20-30 pieces. Totally selfless. Totally admirable. A kind of kampong spirit is rekindled here.


check out how co-operative the crowd were in distributing the "sit-down-paper" generously donated...


Supporters were getting creative in their display and show of support, many string up a few WP flags together in creative ways and waved them high in the air for the WHOLE night! Impressive arm-POWER.

This gentleman, I feel, does his best, sacrificed his hanky to demonstrate his support. He wrote Worker's Party on this hanky and tied it across his forehead. He's clearly a white-collared worker in his untied-tie and long-sleeved shirt and waving his WP flag in the air most of the time.


cannot see clearly? here's the close up...


It got dark so quickly that we barely had time to quickly sum up all our "findings" from the week leading to this last night of rally. Otterman quickly filled us in all his readings and correspondance getting us quickly acquainted with WP and their aims. People are piling into the stadium, the crowd has already filled up the stadium by 8pm, even the fringing grounds outside the stadium is filling up. The tiny gaps between the stadium and the swimming pool was also filled with supporters. I can only guess, MANY are HERE.



Pre-Rally Chant...

If you listen intently, there's a male voice that asks the crowd to sit-down. Yes, this man was instrumental to allow the rest of us who are comfortably seated to enjoy our "seats" for the night. He was doing a great job at keeping those infront seated down the whole time. ha ha ha...

Yeah, the WP arrived at the stadium to a standing excited crowd at 730pm and started delivering their speech with different representatives from the different wards. Each one of them had a topic to discuss, angled at a different group of audience, rapidly exploring all the different languages and captured the crowd in their first speeches. Impressive.
check out the crowd...




I'm impress by the fact that when a candidate speaks, the people listens.
Everyone will be silently listening, attentively taking mental notes of what they say. Many in the crowd belongs to the educated Singaporeans who are able to judge for themselves if what the WP says makes sense. How often to you see so many being so attentive for 3hrs?


The YES crowd

A short clip on how "obedient" we are as listeners.... yet another example of how closely we're following the speeches.

Post Rally Video - lots of young folks


Post Rally Video - last bits of the speech to remind supporters to leave in an orderly fashion, Otterman's view, a grateful voter (East Coast), the litter before the clearing and after......


When the rally ended, many hanged around to discuss what they've just heard. And many also started to leave the newspapers/magazine/plastic bags that they were seated on behind. When we turned around and saw the crowd departed in a non-chalent fashion. We started to do a new chant :"Clear UP your NewsPapers, OOI, CLEAR UP." It was a powerful signal to see the crowd shouting and clearing a the same time, with some pressure, these folks started to pick up after themselves and even for their neighbours as well. Very proud of you.

tired liao. will put up the audio feeds tmr... *yawn*
(hope I dun chant the WP chant in my sleep....)