ORGANISERS of a Sarawak Day rally in Kuching today said they were the targets of a campaign to harass and intimidate state nationalists, after three of them were summoned by police  to give their statements on last Monday’s gathering at Padang Merdeka.

Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspirations (Sapa) president Dominique Ng told reporters at the Kuching police headquarters that some “very unhappy people” were making use of the police to intimidate and harass the rally organisers.

Ng and two other Sapa office bearers who helped organise the rally were ordered to give their statements late this afternoon after a report was lodged against them for holding an illegal assembly.

“I have an educated guess (on who lodged the report),” Ng said.

The former PKR member said the harassment had grown worse since Pakatan Harapan came into power last year.

“Now there are changes to so many laws and I have been hauled up twice now to give statements on gatherings for which I have all the permits.”

He was first summoned by police in April after he held a rally at the same venue in support of the now failed bill to amend the federal constitution to restore Sarawak’s status as an equal partner in the federation of Malaysia.

He was called in again today over a July 22 rally, Ng said.

Despite the event having obtained all the necessary permits, he said, a police officer in the central police statio had filed a report against the rally.

The police station is next to the venue.

“We have all the required permits needed for the (722) rally. We have got the police permit for the gathering. We have even got the blessing from the state government which allowed us to use Central Padang,” Ng said, calling Padang Merdeka by its old name.

“We fulfilled all the requirements.

“But what is the purpose of giving us all the permits yet get hauled up by the police because of one report?”

He said this was giving the police a bad image.

Parti Bumi Kenyalang president Voon Lee Shan and Sarawak United People’s Party Youth leader Milton Foo were with Ng. – July 24, 2019.