DAPs 929' campaign surprisingly smooth in Bentong

comments     Claudia Theophilus     Published     Updated

The DAP's "No to 929" and "No to 911" people's awareness campaign went ahead smoothly at the Bentong wet market this morning, its publicity chief Ronnie Liu said today.

About 60 DAP members, including chairperson Lim Kit Siang and Batu Gajah MP Fong Po Kuan, sold books on the campaign and distributed balloons printed with the two slogans.

"We sold 300 books in English and Mandarin within an hour, a pretty good response from the public. We also gave away about 200 balloons to the people.

"There were 10 policemen when we started just after 9am, but nothing happened.

"We are happy the police did not try to interfere with our campaign and we urge Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai to give clear instructions to this effect to all police officers for future events," he said when contacted today.

Liu said the DAP will continue with the current road show in other states.

On whether any representative from the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) were present, Liu said while he didn't see anyone familiar, he was not sure if they had been among the crowd.

The party's socialist youth movement or Dapsy had invited Suhakam to Bentong to personally monitor DAP's campaign, which was "not a challenge to the police".

Dapsy acting national secretary Loke Siew Fook said in a statement the campaign was to make an important point "to preserve and protect our fundamental constitutional and political rights as leaders and activists of a legitimate political party in Malaysia".

A non-event

He said the complaints forwarded by Dapsy had been conveyed to Suhakam chairperson Abu Talib Othman and the other commissioners with an assurance of action but nothing specific.

Today's non-event was in sharp contrast with the arrest of 12 DAP members on Aug 4 during a similar campaign, also in Bentong.

They were later released on police bail and told to report to the station again on Oct 4.

The DAP has been going on an active campaign to protest against Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's declaration on Sept 29, 2001, that Malaysia was an Islamic state, thus the "No to 929" slogan.

The party is also dead set against PAS insistence on a theocratic state once it comes to power and its tabling of the controversial hudud law by the Terengganu state government.

Last September, the DAP severed ties with PAS over the Islamic state issue and the imposition of the hudud law in Malaysia.

Party chief Lim was also arrested twice under the Sedition Act — in Ipoh on June 5 and Port Dickson on July 21 — in connection with the "No to 929" campaign. However, he has not been charged yet.

Meanwhile, Liu said the Dapsy campaign in Tampin, Negeri Sembilan, led by Loke and the state DAP chairperson Tan Kok Wai, who is also Cheras MP, was also uneventful.



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