They deprived us of Stadium Merdeka, but inadvertently without even realising it - gave us the whole of Kuala Lumpur instead.

I was there at 11.30am yesterday together with about 300 people, maybe 400 at the most, a small group, you could not even call them a crowd.

The road leading to the stadium opposite the Chinese Assembly Hall and beside the Old Chinese temple, that road was blocked with barbed wire, and three Police Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) trucks and about 100 officers, were parked one behind the other facing us in the direction from the stadium downwards, poised to attack anyone who tried to force themselves through.

Moving on

I stood there for about half an hour an noticed the crowd thinning down there. I walked towards the old BPR HQ, now known as MACC ,

I met a young Malay group, they had come from Kedah, one of the boys told me this, "Uncle what is this? In Germany even the Neo Nazis can come out and demonstrate as long as it is done peacefully, what are these fellows up to?

"Uncle, we Malays are getting embarrassed by this government and this Ketuanan Melayu and the antics of fools, we are not fools like they think we are, let us unite and kick them out, that is why we are here from Kedah, we slept in our car."

We walked towards Petaling Street, turned right into Jalan Sultan and walked down further. At the bend right up to Jalan Rodger, we saw a sea of people.

We joined the group, the whole of Jalan Sultan itself would have numbered more then 15,000 people. We started moving forward, we saw a group of Dayaks from Sarawak, they had come to join us.

Then there was a group from Selangor, and shouts of "Hidup Bersih."

We continued heading to the other end, there were Malays, Chinese and Indians, and our Orang Asli. It was truly Malaysian, both male and female, young and old, more young than old.

That was the promise I saw, the young, the future of my country there.

The Groups

We reached the area around Menara Maybank and Pudu Raya. There were at least about 20,000 people there. Separated from us was another huge group in front of Tong Shin, we knew that in the area along the National Mosque and the area around Hilton and Central there was yet another group, our estimates tell us there must have been 200 thousand maybe 300 thousand people in all, no exaggeration.

Imagine the whole of Jalan Sultan full of people, imagine a huge crowd with no standing room in the area in front of Maybank on the left to Min Ho, and the right to Pudu Raya there were around 3,000 people.

Jalan Sultan alone would have 15,000 at the least. Add the crowd in front of Maybank and Jalan Rodger, and that is only one group by my reckoning.

They were shouting "Hidup Bersih" I lent my voice to it. Whenever someone started it, the whole crowd followed. They were also shouting "down with SPR". The whole crowd responded. It was jubilant, they did not give us the stadium so we took KL instead.

I am a subscriber of Malaysiakini and I say their estimates were wrong, their lack of resources may be telling, that would have been the Umno group and I did not see even one of them around, but did hear they were around in two small pockets.

A Sudden Fear So No Stadium

Talking about the stadium - after the Agung had told us we could use a stadium, and Najib said we could have the stadium, his stupid cousin got wise and came and threw the spanner into the works, because it is the truth, and the plain truth, that the Stadium Merdeka would have been too small for this group.

If it was held in the stadium the truth of the numbers would be told.

Merdeka Stadium can take a maximum capacity of 35,000, then there is the field itself, which can take maybe 10,000 or more. The rest would have to spill out and Najib's lies about numbers will be exposed.

At the 11th hour, that is on June 8, Hishamuddin offered to allow us the use of Shah Alam Stadium, then at almost the 12th hour his police shut down Shah Alam.

But with a capacity of about 100,000 including the playing field, it would not have been enough and would have compounded the problems for the BN.

Police Action

If there was a security problem it was caused by the police and the government's propaganda, nothing else. The people were peaceful, there were brave shopkeepers who opened their shops and even smiled and waved at us and waved us on, they did not fall victim to these idiots.

Fast food outlets did a roaring business, eateries ran out of food, news vendors ran out of bottled water.

Tourists mingled with us, one of them told me, "I woke up to a deserted country and I saw police all around the streets, I thought it was a kind of coup d'etat , now I see a carnival atmosphere, with so many people, what's the celebration, have you overthrown the government?"

I replied: "Watch, we're on our way."

They shut down KL, the police were everywhere from Klang to KL, the railway halts from Klang to KL were manned by police wanting to know where we we going, the Federal Highway was blocked, the Kesas was blocked the NKVE was blocked, and KL was filled with police - the FRU, the normal day to day mata mata , and the traffic cops, yet all these two hundred to three hundred thousand went into KL.

The leaders were arrested, Ambiga, Anwar, Kit Siang, Anwar's daughters, Hadi. But the people behaved, they carried on, new leaders emerged.

This is Malaysia I said, no need to say one when we are one, it's people who are unsure and who are not and refuse to be one, who sell slogans like IMalaysia.

The PAS men who directed us were excellent, better than our police at the job.

The section of the crowd that I was in got sprayed, and gassed, the tear gas gets into your lungs and you really gasp for breath, the eye irritation is not so bad, the water was itchy, the rains came, it rained heavily.

It was really God-sent, it saved our skins from the laced liquid I suppose, it was a good experience. Next time I'll try a bigger dosage.

A relative of mine, in my age bracket too, I suppose, Allen Lopes, was with another group. He sent me a message this morning. It reads, "I was there too, Toffee. A day I shall cherish for the rest of my life - teargas and showers of blessing notwithstanding." That really sums up yesterday.

I am prepared for more, you must be prepared for more, too. If nothing changes, the mood to change what others think is unchangeable, has crept in, to stay and grow.

And for you, the young, the middle-aged the old who were there I salute you, like I saluted the National flag on Aug 31, 1957 at the Klang Town padang in my Boy Scout Cub uniform and sang the "Negara Ku", I learned the song from my scoutmaster Mr George Michael before Merdeka, I sang it before Merdeka, I doubt even Najib can claim that.