The participants of the Silent Walk.
KOTA KINABALU: The just-concluded 13th General Election has brought about various reactions from the public, and a group of about 50 people comprising mostly youths had taken it to the streets to express their “sorrow over the death of democracy in Malaysia,” here yesterday.
Clad in black outfits, the group walked about 2.5 kilometres from the Suria Sabah shopping complex all the way to the front of the Umno building, in what was called as The Silent Walk, with tapes over their mouths to symbolize “being denied of the right to voice and to democracy.”
The group was led by activist Jan Chow, who mobilised friends through Facebook and text messages, with little expectation of turnout, but ended up with a number of people big enough to attract the public, onlookers and even the authorities.
“If our future can be bought by money, I don’t have enough money to buy my own future,” said Jan, in regards to the alleged buying of votes before, during and after the elections.
“We are just a group of young people who are really concerned about our future. My friends and I are simply gathering to express our sorrow over the democracy that had died in Malaysia.
“This is simply an act of depression. Just like when you’re sad and you need to express that sadness through crying, we are here today to express that sorrow. This unfairness, this depression has to stop. Leaders ought to open up their eyes and see that people are angry and disappointed over the unfairness that had taken place in the general election,” said Jan.
She added that the powers that be had failed to educate the people enough about the elections, in particular the functions of Borang 14, which she said had been manipulated to favour certain party in the just concluded general election.
“Borang 14 lists down the final results of ballot counting by the counting agents observing the ballot counting process. Results should not have been easily altered if they had carried out the counting process properly and put the Borang 14 to proper use. But in the 13th general election we saw that there were a lot of unofficial results being changed to favour certain party when they were announced in the mass media,” said Jan.
The group’s effort was also disrupted when a couple of plain-clothes policemen told them to stop their walk.
They defied the orders and continued their walk until they reached the compound of the Umno building and dispersed.