There is a carnival sort of atmosphere at the Kelana Jaya stadium this morning at the day-long anti-fuel hike rally.
People started trickling into the 50,000 capacity stadium since early morning, to be greeted by vendors selling Pakatan Rakyat party mementos, T-shirts, cassettes and posters.
The rally is organised by the Coalition Against
Inflation (Protes).Protes coordinator Dr Hatta Ramli told Malaysiakini yesterday that the programme, which would see musical and artistic performances in between political speeches, would start at 10am until midnight.
When the rally kicked off at 10am, about 5,000 people have arrived at the stadium with more on their way. Most of them are in red T-shirts, turning the grandstand into a sea of red.
By noon, the crowd had risen to about 10,000.
About 2,500 volunteers from both PAS and PKR Youth wing have been placed to handle the crowd.Police and military 'intimidation'
At the station, a small band of uniformed police personnel have been stationed to monitor the crowd.
So far, there is no police presence outside the stadium, although policemen have been put on standby in case of any untoward incident.There are also two mobile police stations at the stadium.
"Any contrary information that is being disseminated whether by SMS or email are patently false and misleading and are meant to confuse the public." said a statement from Protes.
"The planned programme will not be cancelled under any circumstances to ensure that the people are able to express their dissatisfaction at the government's decision to drastically increase the price of petrol and other fuels without strong and reasonable justification."
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