PAS event featuring the party's controversial deputy chief Mohamed Sabu would have ended peacefully if not for a large bunch of nails found near the site of the ceramah in Bayan Lepas.

NONE The nails, about an inch in length and weighing at least one kilogramme, were brought to the front stage by the party's security corps (Unit Amal) at the end of the ceramah at midnight.

They were found under vehicles along the 500 metre road to the ceramah site, after which security personnel warned people to look under their cars and motorcycles for the nails before leaving to avoid their tyres being punctured.

Mohamed, better known as Mat Sabu,was rather startled to see the  nails, which appeared brand new.

Earlier, Mat Sabu spoke for about an hour on the "countless' ways Umno tried to undermine the Pakatan Rakyat state governments with racial and religious issues but seemed to have failed at every strategy.

NONE The 1,000 strong crowd responded by laughing and clapping at his light-hearted anecodotes and comical rendition of Umno's "desperate" moves to recapture that states that have fallen to Pakatan.

As the area falls under the Balik Pulau constituency, Mat Sabu was accompanied by PAS division chief Fauzi Yusoff, former PAS Bayan Lepas state candidate (2008) Hasnah Hashim, and state legislative assembly speaker and PKR division chief Abdul Halim Hussein.

All the speakers defended Pakatan's rule in Penang, led by Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, rubbishing allegations by Umno that he had marginalised the Malay Muslim community in Penang.

They attributed most problems facing the community, especially the loss of land ownership, to BN's rule led by Gerakan in Penang for more than five decades.

"Where was Umno all these while? What have they done for you, the Malays in Penang, when they had power in their hands?" the speakers asked.

In his speech, Mat Sabu said that there were "a little disturbance" in the recent ceramah he attended in Johor and Negeri Sembilan.

He said the encouraging turnout at the ceramah in Labis (Johor), Seremban and Rembau (both in Negeri Sembilan) had "shocked" the party's arch rival Umno.

NONE "Disturbances ( kacau ) happened in those places because they are the last line of defence for Umno," Mat Sabu said, referring to the BN's defeat in five states in the 2008 general election.

"They (Umno) cannot fight us by using ceramah , which is why they fight us by using gangsterism," said the former Pokok Sena MP.

Mat Sabu said if it Pakatan youths had been caught disrupting BN's ceramah , the "poor lads would have had to spend the night in the police lock-up".

In August, Mat Sabu kicked up a storm among police and army personnel after Umno-linked Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia reported that he had gloried communists and condemned the police force as tools of the British colonial power.

He is currently suing the Utusan group editor-in-chief, Abdul Aziz Ishak, and Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd for the publication of the article which touched on the Bukit Kepong shootout in the 1950s between the police and those fighting for the country's independence.

pengukir nama johor mat sabu 050911 Mat Sabu urged the police to remain professional in their duties as the world had witnessed their partisanship during the July 9 Bersih 2.0 rally, where the force had fired tear gas cannisters into the Tung Shin Hospital compound in Pudu.

"They have done so against the standard procedure. We want the police to remain professional... even if we take over Putrajaya, we will not want them to be Pakatan tools," he said.

Mat Sabu also described the active communities on social networking sites - Facebook and Twitter - as the 'new force' in Malaysian politics.

These communities, he said, were made of youngsters who do not watch the "propaganda" on governmentowned Radio-Television Malaysia (RTM).

"They can bring down ( menggulingkan ) the ruling party in the coming 13th general election, just as it happened in the United States and the Arab countries," he said.

"Do you believe me?" he asked the crowd, which responded with a resounding 'yes!'.

Mat Sabu ended his talk by criticising those who hina (insult) Islam by distributing posters in Johor depicting Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat "chopping off" Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's head and an arm of former MCA leader Chua Jui Meng.

He said if the Malays or Muslims were behind the posters, they were spreading hatred for the religion of Islam among the non-Muslim community, which was a grave sin.

"These posters show how bloody the hudud law is. If non-Muslims had done it, then they have undermined other people's religion," he warned.

"This is a sensitive issue. Please stop it for we are taught not to criticise other people's religions," Mat Sabu added.