Police and FRU cordon off DAP dinner with 3,500 guests

(The Star) – DAP’s 43rd anniversary dinner started with 3,500 people eating in tents along Lorong Bayu Tinggi 4C here as truckloads of police and FRU, including two with water canons, cordoned off the area.

Police, at first, refused to allow dinner guests, including women and children, to enter the area but when DAP leaders Lim Kit Siang, Gobind Singh Deo and Ronnie Liu, among others, turned up at about 8pm, they marched in with them and took their seats.

However, police confiscated the PA system and told organisers that they were barred from making speeches, holding the lucky draw or having the lion dance.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said that police had originally given a permit on June 17 to hold the function in conjunction with Father's Day in front of his service centre but revoked it at 3.30pm on June 19. He showed reporters the revoked permit.

The dinner went on peacefully and ended at about 10pm and most of the DAP leaders left.

Guests streamed out as police and FRU looked on.