KUCHING, July 26 ― A civil rights group today lodged a police report against Serian district police chief Deputy Superintendent Chung Aik Peng for allegedly harassing people who wanted to take part in a Sarawak Day celebration last week.

Sarawak For Sarawakians (S4S) claimed that many people who were present at the celebration had complained of being harassed and intimidated by Chung.

"We want the state police to initiate  immediate investigation against him so that appropriate action can be taken,” S4S spokesperson Karen Shepherd told reporters before submitting an official complaint with the Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mazlan Mansor.

Shepherd, who later accompanied her husband and S4S leader Peter John Jaban and S4S member Alim Mideh to the police headquarters, said the complaint listed down numerous incidents of harassment, threats and intimidation against people who intended to take part in the celebration at the Taman Komuniti in Serian on July 22.

It was called off after the police stopped them from entering the venue.

Shepherd said S4S believed that Chung's action infringed on people’s civil liberties and tarnished to the good name of the police and their relationship with the community at large.

She said S4S is not against the Serian police, but only against Chung who had gone overboard telling the people not to attend the celebration.

 "His role is to maintain public order and the security and in my view, he is also there to protect the rights of individual citizens, but  In this case, he went well beyond his limit, deploying riot police against ordinary citizens at a public function,” she said.

Meanwhile, four persons have lodged police reports against Chung over their detention at the Serian police station on July 22.

They lodged the reports at the Sungai Maong and Satok police stations in Kuching yesterday and today.

According to Shepherd, the four were on their way to take part in the Sarawak Day celebration in Serian when they were stopped by the police and ordered to go to the Serian police station where they were detained from 6am to 11.45am on July 22.

"They were asked to go to the Serian police station after they were found to be in possession of the old state flags,” she said.

Lawyer Dominique Ng Kim Ho, who was present at the press conference, said it is nothing wrong to possess old state flags.

"In fact, there is no law preventing people from hoisting or carrying old State flags. They are not bringing banned flags of other countries so why detained them?” he asked, referring to the detention of  Doris anak Kent and her husband Boon Yan Bui, Bong Kai Feng and  Kong En Min.

"I will file court action against Chung and the Serian police for unlawful detention,” Ng said.