KOTA KINABALU: The Bersih 5 will be held at the Taman Ujana Rimba Tropika park as Kota Kinabalu City Hall did not allow the rally to be held at Padang Merdeka here.
The Sabah Bersih steering committee disclosed in a statement yesterday that Kota Kinabalu City Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai has rejected their notice to conduct the event at the city’s central field due to renovation works on the grandstand.
After taking into account several aspects, it was decided that the gathering will be held at the Rainforest Park adjacent to the State Archives and State Library.
“We see it as very suitable and will not contravene with the Peaceful Assembly Act because it is a public area and will not disrupt traffic flow in a major way,” said the committee who expressed their disappointment with the rejection of their first choice of Padang Merdeka.
They claimed that it was within their rights to use the public field and their gathering would not be affected by renovation to the grandstand which they said was completed earlier this year.
“For the record, we have made an announcement that we have had a signature drive across the state to allow Sabahans use of the field for the B5KK gathering,” they said.
The committee visited the mayor at his office on Monday to discuss the upcoming rally and officially submitted notice of the event, planned for November 19.
According to the statement, Yeo told the committee that he would not give them approval to use the park.
“However, we would like to stress that we do not need an ‘approval permit’ from City Hall who are not the legitimate owners of the field, but custodians. Sabahans, the taxpayers, are the real owners of the field,” they said.
Another notice will be sent on the change of location venue soon, including to the police.
The committee said that they expect the police force to turn up in full force and take up space within the park compound.
“We will advise participants to park nearby instead.”
The Sabah Bersih rally has been on a statewide convoy since October 1. This Saturday, they will be in the district of Tamparuli, Tuaran and Inanam, followed by Labuan, Kuala Penyu, Papar, Putatan and Penampang the following weekend.
Last weekend, Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah was arrested at Langkon town in Kota Marudu for allegedly distributing leaflets without including the name and address of the printer and publisher as required under Section 11 of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.
She was released two hours later after police took her statement.