Sabah Bersih organisers to be summoned
Published on: Sunday, November 20, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Police will be calling in the organisers and several participants of the Bersih 5 Kota Kinabalu (B5KK) to record their statements following the peaceful rally which took place at the Taman Ujana Rimba Tropika, here, Saturday. The organisers ended the rally about 30 minutes earlier than their initial plan to have it until 6pm. "We estimated about 650 people turned up for the rally which overall went peacefully with no untoward incident," said City Police Chief ACP M.Chandra. ADVERTISEMENT "They started walking from the assembly points at about 1.50pm and along most of the route they remained on the walkway except for some routes where some were seen crossing the roads," he said. He said even though the rally went peacefully with no traffic disruption, two offences under the Peaceful Assembly Act were detected. "One is under Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act for which we will call in the organiser to have her statement taken, and the second is under Section 4(2)( C ) of the same Act for street protest, where we will call in some of the participants," he said. He said there was no indication of the opposing Red Shirts group's presence throughout the rally. ADVERTISEMENT "We had sufficient manpower to monitor the situation and looked out for any seditious statement, of which there was none," he said, adding that they started monitoring Bersih for the past one month since Bersih Sabah started their convoy. "I believe there were also those from the universities who were present at the rally to monitor their students," he said.
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Meanwhile, the Bersih Sabah Steering Committee described the peaceful rally as a huge success. Rally goers who started walking from the three assembly points at 1.30pm and arrived at the public park at about 2.48pm, with police including Light Strike Force and City Hall enforcement teams monitoring the situation. Apart from the five Bersih 5 demands, other concerns raised during the rally included communal land issues and calls for violence against women to stop. Chants for a clean Sabah were also heard as supporters walked into the venue accompanied by a group from Pensiangan playing traditional gongs. "I am very grateful and thankful to all brave Sabahans and Malaysians who came out," said Chairperson Beverly Joeman."They were daring enough to wear the yellow Bersih shirts despite the possibility of facing some provocation which thankfully did not happen here," she said. She said they initially told police they expected between 800 and 1,000 people, but it seemed like about 2,000 showed up. It was learnt that participants came from across the State, among them from Pensiangan, Keningau, Tawau, Sandakan, Penampang, Kota Kinabalu and Labuan. "We hope the government will listen to the people's voices and make some changes that will appeal to every Malaysian."I am a bit upset with Bersih 2.0 Chairman Maria Chin Abdullah and steering committee member Mandeep Singh's arrest, because we were informed that Maria's charge has been changed from Section 124C of the Penal Code to the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012," she said. She said it is also good to see youths daring enough to stand up for their rights and thanked police and City Hall for the cooperation which made the rally go smoothly. "After negotiations they allowed us to use the public park. Initially, we were wary that people will turn away from Taman Ujama Rimba Tropika and go somewhere else."Thankfully they stayed to the plan and gathered at the three assembly points before walking to the public park safely," she said. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Bersih Sabah Steering Committee I Mathew Yong said estimated signatures gathered from the rally goers was close to 300 at press time. They plan to present the signatures with a petition on the demands by Bersih Sabah to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman at the State Assembly on Monday.