Sarawak kicks out activist Ong BK

He says the deportation order must have come from politicians who “don’t like their vote buying and abuses of power being exposed by MEO-Net”.

KUALA LUMPUR: Sarawak immigration officers caught up with political activist Ong BK in Bengoh today and ordered him out of the state.

Ong, a coordinator of the Malaysian Election Observers Network (MEO-Net), entered Sarawak through Bintulu on May 21 with no difficulties, but 10 officers stopped him at the Bengoh Dam security post this morning and escorted him to the immigration office in Pending.

MEO-Net says he was in Sarawak to expose what the group alleges are infringements and malpractices in the recent state election.

MEO-Net was formed in 2009 to coordinate civil society work on voter education, democracy education, election observation and voter registration.

“They didn’t arrest me,” said Ong. “They didn’t specify what my offence was or which section of the law the deportation was under.”

He suggested that he was being deported because “some politicians don’t like me—politicians who don’t like their vote buying and abuses of power being exposed by MEO-Net.”

Ong is currently in the Pending immigration office, waiting for the details of his flight home to be confirmed.

He is scheduled to be flown back to Kuala Lumpur tonight. The other two members of his team are still in Sarawak.