DAP won’t join Bersih rally July 9.

DAP will find other ways to support Bersih's call for fair and free elections.

Although DAP has declared that it will not participate in the Bersih rally on July 9 and give an “unclean” Barisan Nasional (BN) and the police an opportunity to “unreasonably arrest us”, it will however find other ways to show its solidarity with the coalition for fair and free elections.

Said Sarawak DAP secretary Chong Chieng Jen: “We have one or two plans to discuss in the next day or two.

“But it is not appropriate for me to tell you now. Once we have agreed to a plan, we will tell you.

“But it is certain that DAP members will not participate in the rally in Kuala Lumpur on July 9. We have our own plan.

“For now, we need to discuss our plan, and we don’t want to give reasons for the police to unreasonably arrest us.”

Chong said the police have been carrying out “unreasonable” arrests when it is the “constitutional right of every citizen whether they wish to assemble or parade”.

“I don’t think the police should interfere. To assemble or parade is every citizen’s constitutional right.

“The police should instead assist the organisers to facilitate a peaceful demonstration,” said Chong, who is the Kota Sentosa assemblyman and Bandar Kuching MP.

Asked why the police and BN are scared of the Bersih rally, Chong said: “It is because both the police and BN are not ‘bersih’ (clean).

“This is a movement for clean elections. The BN is against it because it is not clean. It is as simple as that.”

Chong said clean and fair elections were the wishes of all Malaysians but the police, refusing to respect this constitutional right, have issued a statement that anyone supporting Bersih’s call for the rally was “tantamount to inciting (trouble).”

Why Larry Sng?

On another issue, Chong said the re-appointment of partyless politician Larry Sng as the special adviser to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud raises many questions, especially now since the current state assembly has a lot of young BN elected representatives.

“Why is the chief minister appointing Larry (Sng) instead of selecting someone from among these young representatives as his adviser for youth development?

“Are they not competent enough to be his adviser?

“Secondly, is Lee Kim Shin from Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), who is now an Assistant Youth Minister, not competent to handle youth development?

“And thirdly, isn’t there any youth leader in all the BN component parties who is competent enough to be Taib’s adviser?” Chong asked.

Taib had described Sng as “dedicated and loyal to BN”.

“But does this mean that the other BN leaders were not loyal to BN and Taib?” asked Chong

He said that Sng was a political reject of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and by directly appointing Sng, Taib was sending PRS president James Masing a very clear message.

“Is he questioning Masing’s judgment or decision in sacking Larry?” asked Chong, adding that the “BN spirit” did not allow for a member who was rejected by one ally to join another coalition partner.