Foo Chow Hall management rejected Rally

By Atama

We come to you today to inform you that our application to hold Bersih 2.0 Sabah Rally on 9th July 2011 at the Foo Chow Hall in Luyang from 2pm – 4pm has been rejected by the property management.

We, the MCLM Adhoc Committee expresses our great disappointment with the cancellation of our bookings by the venue caused by the intense pressure from the authorities.


It is now clear to us the people of Malaysia that the PM Najib administration lacks the integrity especially because PM Najib has earlier assured Bersih leaders to proceed if it was held indoor and permit applied.

This is a slap in the face to every Sabahan that the right to assembly is guaranteed under Article 10 of the federal constitution is now withheld.

"Does this mean the PM Najib's administration will continue to have 70,000 phantom voters in the Sabah EC roll? By depriving Malaysian of their constitutional rights is obvious that PM Najib & the BN admin is not for free & clean elections." said rap artist turned activist, Andrew Ambrose Mudi.

We had earlier today, observed the police riot drills at Foh Sang and Padang Bandaran. We believe that this kind of response from the police is an intimidation strategy to instill fear in the people. By gearing up in riot gear, holding batons and rehearsing FRU formations, to us it is a exhibition of a police state.

"How can the police use this strategy against a group of citizens that only want to uphold their rights and walk in peace an solidarity with one another for a good cause? Are we the citizens not allowed to express our voice of the injustice committed to us at all? How can democracy be upheld if elections are even rigged?"

We witnessed a group of yellow shirts identified as members of youth group from Foh Sang send a few boxes of drinking water to about 50 police officers. We have identified the youth from the SAPP.

Atama accompanied by his committee and SAPP youth after receiving the rental and deposit of the FooChow HallBy not allowing us to assemble in a hall, will result in a widened splinter groups of citizens that will march uncoordinatedly through out the city.

MCLM has done our part and though we have been rejected twice, we will not budge from exercising our civil rights under article 10.

Atama accompanied by his committee and SAPP youth after receiving the rental and deposit of the FooChow Hall.

On a more positive development, we have been invited to participate in a launch of RadioSabahTv, an online radio on rally day at the headquarters of SAPP at 1pm and will be interviewed by this new media. Our leader, Haris Ibrahim was the first to be interviewed by this online radio a few months ago.

We want to inform all Bersih 2.0 supporters to remain calm and follow the developments from http://bersih.org/

We now call upon all Sabahans to offer our great state & country with a non-stop vigilant prayer for the next 48hours. Pray for all of our Bersih 2.0 Leaders, activists & members. We believe that evil will always be defeated by our prayers.

Lastly, my fellow Sabahans, I leave you with one short message.

"We do not pray for God to be on our side, but rather, we pray so that God allow us to be on His side".

Atama @ Andrew Ambrose Mudi is Co-ordinator Chairman for Bersih Sabah