People’s rally in Sabah a ‘fiasco’

A political pressure group in Sabah has taken to task local oposition leaders' misplaced priorities.

KOTA KINABALU: While more than a 100,000 are said to have attended the Himpunan Kebagkitan Rakyat rally in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday (photo), the affair in Sabah proved to be a flop.

Just a couple of hundred youths turned up for the event at the Chong Thien Vun Park here on Saturday.

The blame was placed on the organisers and the lack of charismatic leaders to motivate would-be attendees in the run-up to the event.

Blogger and activist Ronnie Klassen described the rally as a fiasco with an estimated 300 participants at the park.

Klassen believes that the event here was poorly organised and reflected the discord and disunity among the organisers comprising youths aligned to the various opposition parties such as Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), DAP, PKR and PAS.

“Instead of showing solidarity among themselves, these youths were literally elbowing each other in order to steal the limelight. But, I don’t blame them; I blame their so-called leaders for they themselves were fighting with each other most of the time.

“With such an attitude, they (the opposition) must be dreaming or hallucinating if they really think they can defeat the BN in the coming general election. Anyway, I wish them good luck,” he said.

The confusion was demonstrated at the press conference held at the end of the rally with speakers merely shouting slogans such as “Jatuhkan Umno/BN” and “Tenggelam BN”.

Klassen, who is also the deputy chairman of Demokrasi Sabah (Desah), a Sabah-based political pressure group who are pushing for a ‘one-to-one’ fight between the opposition and BN, also pointed to the conspicuous absence of state opposition leaders at Saturday’s rally here.

With reports that many of the state’s opposition figures were attending the rally in Stadium Merdeka, the blogger said they appeared to have downplayed the importance of having a similar rally in Sabah.

“Have they forgotten that their presence in Sabah was more important than in Kuala Lumpur, so as to be seen with the national opposition leaders like Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang or Awang Hadi? Or have they decided to stand as candidates in Petaling Jaya, Kepong or Kampung Baru?”

He said the slip up clearly demonstrated that their desire to be seen among their national leaders was much greater than to be with fellow Sabahans, who they are paradoxically asking to vote for them in the coming general election.