(Our Kuala Lumpur correspondence’s eyewitness report of Anwar Ibrahim’s 53rd birthday bash outside the Sungai Buloh prison on Sunday, 13 August 2000)

It was an amazing display of pomp and defiance. This normally quiet and deserted country road was awash with a kaleidoscope of the four Barisan Alterntif party colours - PAS, DAP, PRM, and keADILan. I suddenly found renewed faith in the “Reformasi” movement after it seemed to be waning with the many disappointments of late. If depression had set in with the expected-and-yet-no-less-shocking verdict of Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim's second trial a few days ago, today all spirits were running high.

True, there was still large numbers turning up at recent public gatherings to show their support, though reduced and no less spirited. However, it seemed as if the movement was losing momentum. I renewed my faith as a believer, last Sunday, when no less than 2,000 gathered for a belated birthday bash for Anwar at the Sungai Buloh prison, located outside the Federal Capital.

I made the mistake of intercepting the planned convoy, misled into believing they would meet and gather at the mosque in Damansara as announced by the “Reformasi Websites on the Internet. Only at 11:15am when I called Parti Keadilan Nasional youth chief, Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, to ask on their whereabouts, was I told that the convoy was on the move after gathering at the Sungai Buloh rest area along the North Klang Valley Expressway.

(Don't ask me why it didn't cross my mind to call earlier when no one showed up. It just didn't strike me as odd knowing Malaysians adhere to the time in their own personal zones)

Being rather of a road hog, it didn't take me long to reach the town some distance from the prison. And that's when I first saw it.

At first I though it was the usual Malaysian traffic jam, but it’s kind of hard to disregard the uniform white and blue party colours of keADILan being madly waved around by enthusiastic supporters from their vehicles.

It took some swift maneuvering, and many disgruntled stares from people I overtook later (Malaysians sometimes do try to refrain from public exhibition of their disgust despite their reputation on the road...seriously.), I reached the access road leading to the prison entrance.

Nothing prepared me for the numbers gathered along the main road and that leading to the prison gates. I had estimated maybe a maximum of about three or four hundred supporters in, say, fifty or sixty cars would be present - what with the current dwindling public gatherings, the ever imminent threat of an encounter with the uniformed kind and, for that particular late morning, the threatening dark skies that loomed overhead.

I felt a rush of adrenaline, which I can only blame for illegally double-parking my car at a junction road divider, and sped off to take some pics. While a gathering of nearly 2,000 might not sound many, it is, considering the prison facility is located quite a distance from Kuala Lumpur. Not exactly your average commute (to most, anyway).

There was a carnival-esque air to the gathering with placards, banners, balloons and shouts of "Reformasi" and many other slogans, that took place in a controlled spirited manner. 

Heck, there was even the symbolic release of doves and pigeons to symbolise freedom by Ezam. (Was I right in spotting that a parrot was also released? A member of the mainstream media remarked that maybe it was, when I asked for confirmation, and added that it might have been trained to say "Reformasi!" to spread the message. With any luck...it'll fly to Putrajaya, perch on "someone's" window ledge and irritate him day and night.)

The boys in blue with red helmets and shields arrived shortly in four trucks with the imposing water cannons. Dozens of the Federal Reserve Unit rudely pushed their way to the gates and formed a barricade at the gates but did not persist in harassing the crowd.

The crowd did not seem deterred by the presence of the FRU and police, if anything they seemed more determined to make their presence felt as their singing got louder.

Intermittent rain did nothing in breaking up the crowd, and when Datin Seri Wan Azizah arrived, many surged forwards to greet her and her family, some to hand over their birthday greeting cards to be passed on to Anwar.

The crowd then orderly dispersed on the advise of the organisers, but not before a minor fracas when prison officers started taunting several of the supporters. Plainclothes policemen and also organisers intervened, preventing any nasty incidents and the convoy headed back to the city.

More than an hour later, Wan Azizah emerged saying that Anwar had been touched by the show of support and that personally, it had invigorated her to see that many present.

I felt the same, and I, like many who share my views, sense a more spirited return of the "Reformasi" movement. Or was it ever gone in the first place?

JOE LEE
Kuala Lumpur