The crowd during the 722 Sarawak Independence Day celebration at Padang Merdeka. – File photo
KUCHING: Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspiration (Sapa) president Dominique Ng and three others were called up by the police yesterday over a breach in one of the conditions set during the Sarawak Independence Day celebration on July 22.
When contacted today, Kuching district police chief ACP Awang Din Awang Gani said one of the conditions stated in the permit was the prohibition of holding a procession but the Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) movement had allegedly held one when they marched from the Song Kheng Hai grounds to Padang Merdeka to join Sapa’s celebration there on that day.
Four individuals namely Ng, Song Kheng Hai grounds chairman William Mangor, Jubilee Grounds Park managing chairman Chin Lu Chi and Kuching Traditional Handicraft Studies Society president Tan Kok Chiang were called to the Kuching District Police Headquarters at Jalan Simpang Tiga here to give their statements.
“So far only four individuals were called to the police station to give their statements. Ng was called to give his statement as a witness,” he added.
Ng had expressed his dissatisfaction for being called to the police station as he believed that he and his friends at Sapa had done nothing wrong in hosting the Sarawak independence day celebration at Padang Merdeka.
He also considered the act by the police in calling him and the other organisers of the celebration to give statements at the Kuching District Police Headquarters as “police intimidation”, as he claimed that the police had lodged reports in the past against him for hosting Sarawak independence day celebrations at Padang Merdeka for many years.
Since the state government had given permission for Sapa to host the celebration at Padang Merdeka this year, Ng had initially expected that no report would be lodged against Sapa for hosting it.