Sabah Bersih to go ahead with democracy walk despite police warning
As the carnival air died down after the first day of Sabah's Bersih 4 yesterday, rally organisers are now gearing up for the serious part of the gathering today – a democracy walk they hope will see an ever bigger turnout than the day before and which could land them in bigger trouble with the police. Kota Kinabalu police yesterday repeated their warning to the public not to join Day 2 of the rally, after a turnout of more than 3,000 on the first day exceeded organisers' expectations, despite the authorities declaring the gathering illegal. But Sabah Bersih organiser Jannie Lasimbang last night reminded participants to get the word out that the democracy walk would start at 9am today. "I'm sure you all had fun today but we have a serious event tomorrow and before you go to sleep I want you to tell at least 10 of your friends tomorrow to come out," she told Sabah Bersih 4 participants as they started laying out mats and preparing to bed down for the night at their encampment at a park in Taman Teluk Likas 2. The 6km democracy walk has been "discouraged" by the police, organisers have said, as it resembled a march. Organisers plan to walk on the jogging track along Jalan Tun Fuad Stephens from the park towards the Kota Kinabalu city centre but they have remained coy on the ultimate destination. Lasimbang has only said that they would proceed as far as police allowed them. The walk will end with speeches from the organisers and politicians. Police will put up barricades to block them from arriving at the city centre. Another Sabah Bersih committee member Matthew Yong said the turnout for the walk could be even bigger than Saturday's festival going by what participants witnessed yesterday. "People saw that when they came out, nothing happened. No violence, no incitement. The police also did not move in. So the walk may have more people than today." Their rally at the park was an incident-free festival with music, talks, beach clean ups and watching the sunset on the Teluk Likas beach. – August 30, 2015.
