The initial signs were inauspicious.

Despite the patient and persistent prompting of the emcee, the crowd took its time to file into the spacious Millennium Hall to fill rows and rows of neatly arranged seats.

It looked like the second annual convention of the Pakatan Rakyat in Kepala Batas today was not going to match in enthusiasm and brio the first edition which premiered exactly a year ago in the Shah Alam town hall...