KOTA KINABALU: After a 17-hour protest demanding an uninterrupted water supply at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), the #KamiMahuAir Sabah secretariat decided to go 'fishing' first.
Yesterday, some 80 people, including UMS students, community representatives, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), gathered in front of Menara Kinabalu.
However, this morning, the crowd had shrunk to about 10 people.
The rally organising chairman Mohd Norhamdin Nordin said they had camped overnight to deliver their memorandum to Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
"By 7am today, we had waited 17 hours to hand over the memorandum to the chief minister, but he was unwilling to receive it.
"Nevertheless, we have decided not to give him the document directly. Instead, he can find it himself on social media," he told reporters.
The 23-year-old Sociology and Anthropology student from Sandakan said: "After this, we will discuss and strategise our movement, but we will go fishing now."
On the nine rally participants detained yesterday without identification documents, Norhamdin said they included a teacher and eight students from an alternative school.
"We stand in solidarity with the teacher and students detained yesterday and will closely monitor the case.
"The issue of children and individuals without documents or with stateless status has been ongoing in Sabah and should be resolved by the Home Ministry."
He added that the government should take responsibility for resolving the issue of undocumented residents and grant them the right to education as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
He also denied that the rally was orchestrated by any political party and described the presence of politicians at the rally as being in their capacity as citizens.
