ANOTHER police report was lodged against the cops over allegations pro-independence activists were prevented from flying or displaying the old Sarawak flag in conjunction with Sarawak Day on July 22.

Sarawak Aspiration People president Lina Soo and chairman Buln Ribos filed a report last night claiming “a plainclothes officer with a walkie talkie” had stopped them from displaying the flag at a Sarawak Day press conference on the waterfront.

Soo said the officer also ordered her to stop the press conference.

She said when she took out the “22 July 1963 flag” for the customary photo session at the end of the press conference, the officer warned her against displaying the flag.

She said the officer also prevented her from using the state legislative assembly building across the river as a backdrop in the photo session.

“The photograph was duly taken, (but) not in the position of choice and without the flag which is of significance to the occasion of July 22, 1963 when Sarawak gained administrative self-governance under our first chief minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan,” she said.

When she went to file a complaint yesterday at the Padungan police station, Soo said she sought clarification from police there if possession and display of the 1963 flag was prohibited.

She said she was assured by the two police officers on duty that there was no law forbidding the display of the old Sarawak flag, which was spotted flying near the station,.

She said she made the report mainly “to seek advice on the legitimacy of the old flag”.

In the press conference, Soo had made three demands, which she called the “722 demands” of  the state government.

They were for an independence referendum to be held; observance of the July 22 public holiday as Sarawak Independence Day as stated in the Sarawak gazette notification; and the honorary title of “Tun” to be bestowed on the state’s first chief minister, the late Ningkan.

Yesterday, another pro-independence activist in Miri also lodged a report against the police for seizing   the old Sarawak flag he had in his possession while he was on his way to a “722” convoy on Sarawak Day.

Bobby Williams alleged the police officers who took the flag, sometimes referred to as the “Sarawak crown flag”, had told him it was illegal to fly the flag.

The flag was the flag of the White Rajahs that was flown from 1870 to 1946 and later by the state from 1963 to 1973. – July 25, 2020.