Bersih 4 Kuching had to end abruptly due to concern for public safety, say its organisers

The Bersih 4 gathering in Kuching had to end one day ahead of its two-day schedule due to three reasons.

Its spokesperson Karen Sheperd said despite this, she and other organisers believed it had been a success.

"The gathering is a platform for the ordinary people to speak to politicians to tell them of their feelings and fears over a lot of issues and not so much for politicians to speak to the people.

"Our speakers had included genuine activists and leaders from non-governmental organisation," she said.

"Overall, we feel the event was a good example of the freedom of expression," she said.

But sadly, she said it had to end abruptly because of the overwhelming concern for the safety of the people.

"We had to stop because of the interference from an extremist faction. People too were then beginning to bring their young children to the gathering which is against the law besides problems with the public address system as well which was taken away," she said.

She said postings by a blogger which were later picked up by some newspaper reporters, however, had caused friction between the organising team and leaders from the DAP.

"The DAP leaders should have checked their facts instead of hurling abuses at us," she said.

She claimed that many people had wanted to come the second day and there were many messages of disappointment posted in the social media when it was abruptly ended.

Sheperd, meanwhile, thanked the state government, the police particularly the Kuching district police chief ACP Roslan Bek Ahmad, and the Mayor of Kuching City South Commission, Datuk James Chan for for being very professional toward the gathering.

On their meeting with the city police Monday, she said the police were investigating four reports made against it.

On press reports that a group of villagers were duped into attending the gathering instead of a city tour as promised, Karen said she had no knowledge of this and insisted that she and her group had never forced people to attend it.