If you have been following the news lately, you might have come across some ‘dramas’ regarding Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's Department's plans in having the Madani Raya Open House in three states in Malaysia, namely Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu. Right after the announcement, you can find some strong objections against the open house circulating online, especially on social media. They claimed that the PMX’s plan to have open houses for the Rakyat in these three “Opposition stronghold” states was one of his ways to gain support before the upcoming state elections.
But, the problem was, even those in the Opposition party had different views about the open houses. If you noticed, Kelantan PAS commissioner Datuk Ahmad Yaakob and Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar (who was also from PAS) welcomed the organising of the open houses. However, Kedah Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor and PAS secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan both objected to the open houses. According to Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung, this shows conflicting views even amongst the PAS leaders.
The most conspicuous ‘drama’ came from Kedah’s MB a few days ago when he claimed that he was not invited to the open house that the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) is having in Kedah. However, his claims were easily debunked by Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim himself, saying he was informed that MB Kedah and his wife were both invited by the organiser of the event, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution, the Minister of Home Affairs himself.
Furthermore, it wouldn’t be appropriate if the Sultan Kedah was invited to the event yet the state MB was not there to accompany the Sultan. Anwar Ibrahim may not be perfect, but he - and highly likely his close companions in his cabinet - wouldn’t slight someone very openly like that, even if they are from the opposition party.
The best part of the Malaysia Madani Raya Open House that was held in Kedah on 29th April, was when Datuk Seri Sanusi arrived at the open house all wide smiles. At first, some news portals reported that only 2,000-3,000 people attended the open house, but from another angle and many other clearer pictures shared online, there were definitely more than 10,000 people who attended the open house — which was the expected number of attendees. By the end of the day of the event, the number of attendees that came to the Malaysia Madani Open House in Kedah reached the target of over 25,000 people. Many people came just to meet the PMX directly, whilst others came to meet other ministers or to enjoy the feeling of Raya with the delicious food and drinks available.
One of the reasons used not make the open house was because some people said it would be a “waste” but the outpouring of people at the open house yesterday proves what Anwar Ibrahim said a few days ago to be true: the open house was an effort to reach out and get close to the people and it would not be wasteful.
So, was the open house in Kedah successful? In my opinion, it was, especially since many voices claimed that it was an opposition-stronghold state and the turnout would be low. Now let’s wait and see how the open house would turn out in Kelantan and Terengganu. Apart from these three states, PMX will also be meeting the Rakyat from Penang, Negeri Sembilan, and Selangor - which are organised by the respective state governments.
Aliza M. is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
