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| TAIB MAHMUD : His common practice is to bar any politician outside Sarawak entering the state. He abuses his power by wrongly using this privileged for his personal interest and to protect his corrupt practices in Sarawak. The acts of Taib Mahmud are favoured and protected by PM Najib Razak and ruling UMNO/BN in Malaysia. |
By Awang Abdillah
Sarawak has no right to bar West Malaysians with
proper travel documents from entering the state unless they have been
'officially' classified as 'dangerous'.
We have witnessed over the years ,
prominent people from West Malaysia who have been denied entry into
Sarawak.
Despite
having all the necessary travel documents and applying to enter the state
on a social visit pass, these people could not pass the immigration point upon
the order from the Sarawak authorities.
Let us
analyse the issues involved. Firstly, Article 9(2) of the Federal
Constitution pledges to uphold the democratic personal right of all
Malaysians to travel and stay in any part of the country.
Secondly ,
the 1963 Malaysia Agreement recognises the need to protect the special rights
of both the peoples of Sarawak and Sabah in respect of employment and economic
opportunities from being taken away by West Malaysians.
Consequently
the special provision to safeguard such interests was incorporated into the
Malaysia Immigration Act under sections 62-66.
The special
provision for Sarawak and Sabah is meant to regulate and control the entry of
West Malaysians into the two states, who intend to seek employment and
carry out business activities there.
Hence, West
Malaysians are required to produce their passports or identity cards upon
arrival and to apply for work permit if they wish to work in the two states.
It does
not, however, give the two state governments the outright power to bar or
ban any individual West Malaysian from entering the two states on a social
visit.
Government violations
We have
seen how the state government of Sarawak, through its immigration department,
has from time to time imposed an outright and selective ban against certain
personalities from entering Sarawak.
We can
deduce that such an action by the Sarawak government violates the
following:
- Universal
democratic personal right of all Malaysians
- The
supremacy of the Federal Constitution
- The
sanctity of the 1963 Malaysia Agreement and;
- Jostles
the national spirit of 1Malaysia.
Let us
examine how the act of barring and banning the said entry can bring
further detrimental personal consequences to the affected victims.
To bar and
to ban West Malaysians from entering the state, we have to first examine the
type of actions applied by the Sarawak government in exercising this special
power.
There are
only two instances where the state authority can bar or impose a ban on West
Malaysians upon entering the state.
Firstly the
state immigration department can bar a West Malaysian visitor from entering the
state if he has no proper travel and entry documents namely an international
passport or an identity card.
If a West
Malaysian possesses these two documents, he should be entitled to a
social visit pass. There is no way the immigration officers can bar him from
entry .
Taib’s personal agenda
Under the
same circumstances, if a foreigner has the legal documents namely the
international passport and the relevant visa where necessary, he is also
entitled to a social visit pass to stay for a limited time in the state.
So if both
the foreigner and the West Malaysian have the necessary documents, how can a
foreigner be allowed into the state while the West Malaysian is barred? What
kind of law is Chief Minister Taib Mahmud applying here ?
It is no
more about the state special right but Taib’s personal agenda!
Secondly
the state immigration department may ban a West Malaysian from
entering the state despite having the necessary travel documents provided
he is blacklisted by the federal authorities for some security reasons or
declared as a wanted person by the police or considered as an
unwanted element by society.
Such
categorising of individuals must be supported with proofs or
reports from the police or any authorised body.
Banning a person
from entering a country or state is a serious matter and has adverse
implications on one’s reputation especially if the person is a prominent
leader, politician, lawyer, activist and the like.
It gives
the implication in the eyes of the nation that he has commited a serious crime
against the government and people. Based on records, in all cases, the
persons involved all possess the proper travel documents and they are people of
good reputation .
Hence to
stop Taib from robbing the right of West Malaysians to travel in the
future, I propose that visitors demand that the immigration
officers prove that the visitors do not possess the proper documents upon
arrival at any check point before they can bar them.
The
immigration officers must have documentary proof that the visitors have been
officially categorised as dangerous persons to the state before imposing
an outright entry ban.
Secondly, I propose that those who have been victims of
the Chief Minister’s abuse of the immigration powers, unite and start to
file a joint libel suit against him and his subordinates for wrongful acts of
barring and or banning them from entering the state.
(Awang Abdillah is a Kuching-based activist.)
Source : FMT
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