Silent protest

Jan Chow arrested; out on police bail

A file photo shows Jan leading a group of youths during the ‘Silent Walk’ at the Suria Sabah, on Monday. – Photo courtesy of Sabby Swift

By Victor Ma
KOTA KINABALU: Young civil rights activist Jan Chow, said ‘harassment’ by the police over her involvement in the ‘Silent Walk’ protest against alleged election fraud in the country, would not deter her from continuing with her activities.
Jan was picked from her house on Wednesday at around 4pm by a group of seven police personnel from the Karamunsing Police Station.
She was only released on police bail with two guarantors, at about 6.30pm, after her statement was recorded by a police officer.
When contacted for comment, Jan said even though this was the first time that she has been detained, she was nonetheless calm and was not really worried of what’s going to happened to her.
“This was despite the fact that one of the policeman was “rude and unprofessional”, simply shouting for her to come out from her house,” she told The Borneo Insider.
“I was trained and prepared for such an eventuality; this was not the first time I have participated in such activity,” she said, adding that she was involved in Bersih 2.0 and 3.0.
Jan also disclosed that during her brief ‘detention’ by the police, she was allowed to call her lawyer who immediately rushed to the police station to ensure her rights are protected.
“But, he was not allowed to accompany me during the ‘interview’ and was told to wait outside the room,” she related.
However, Jan categorically denied she is the leader for the Silent Walk, claiming that the event was organized a group of ragtag civil activists and she was just lending them her support.
She also said she was happy to see so many new faces, the young people especially, during the silent protest, signifying that there’s still hope for a real democracy in the county.
A group of 60 people, youths between 20 – 30 wearing black shirts, had on Monday gathered at the Suria Sabah shopping complex here to take part in the said walk, from where they gathered to the nearby Wawasan Shopping Complex.
A trainer for Polling and Counting Agents (PACABA) from Tindak Malaysia, Jan also expressed concern over her observation made at the Sri Gaya polling station, that most of the clerks deployed by the Election Commission (EC) were not properly-trained.
“I had to teach them what to do,” said Jan who was the Polling cum Counting Agent for the SAPP candidate for Luyang.
However, to a question, she replied that she didn’t t see any ‘hanky-panky’ during the counting of votes.
Tindak Malaysia is an electoral movement made up of Malaysian volunteers whose main objective is to advocate a fair and clean election in Malaysia, by educating and training of the volunteers to become Polling and Counting Agents.
Jan, 35, who studied Animation and Digital Effects at University of Wolverhampton and Bournemouth University, in United Kingdom, is the youngest and only girl in the family. She has two elder brothers.
She is also a member of Bersih Sabah chapter.