KOTA KINABALU, Sept 1 — Police have called at least five people involved in last weekend’s Sabah Bersih rally for questioning, including its organising committee and those who made speeches at the 22-hour event.
Its chairman Jannie Lasimbang, along with organising committee members Matthew Yong and S.M.Muthu, state DAP deputy chairman Stephen Wong and Kota Kinabalu DAP Youth chief Henry Shim had their statements taken today at the Karamunsing police station here.
Lasimbang, whose questioning session lasted for three hours said that she was told police were following procedure into investigating possible offences under the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, under Section 4 for right to organise and participate in an assembly, and Section 9(5) for notifying the police officer in charge within 10 days and Section 124(c) Penal Code for actions detrimental to parliamentary democracy.
The first two carries a fine of up to RM20,000 and RM10,000 respectively while the last carries a jail term of up to 15 years if convicted.
“I commend the police for carrying out their responsibilities, but we maintain that Bersih 4 in Sabah was within the country’s laws and we were also acting under our rights to assembly as stated in the Federal Constitution.
“We also said we have no intention to topple the government, but we have five demands and want institutional reforms,” she said.
She also said that she was asked about the Bersih T-shirts which were banned during the rally, as well as the contents of her speech.
The police also took statements from Yong, Muthu, Wong and Shim, whose sessions lasted between 20 minutes to 40 minutes.
Yong and Muthu were the part of the organising committee while Shim and Wong had given a speech during day one of the rally in Sabah.
More people are expected to be called to give their statements soon.
On August 30, the rally was cut short of its 2pm deadline by two hours after reaching a police barricade which disallowed the group of some 500 protesters to continue their walk towards the city.
They were roughly at the halfway mark of reaching the Kota Kinabalu City Hall building to hand in a memorandum asking for their rights to hold a peaceful assembly in a public space.
They later handed in the memorandum to a representative, who officially acknowledged receiving it.
Earlier in the morning, police closed off all entry points to the 4.5km Tanjung Lipat stretch where the rally was being held after finding out that the organisers wanted to continue their ‘democracy walk’ into Lintasan Deasoka near the city hall.
City police chief assistant commissioner M.Chandra said the organisers have been told not to enter the city as it would disrupt public order.
Police had declared the rally illegal on numerous occasions, for not getting approval from the “land owner” in this case, Kota Kinabalu City Hall.
Prior to the event, Chandra had warned action against its organisers under Section 9(5) of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 for failing to give 10-day notice to the district police, and against organisers and the participants under Section 4(2)(c) of the same Act for organising and participating in a street protest.
