Malaysians barred from Sarawak should sue Taib

Taib Mahmud has no legal right to ban anyone from entering Sarawak unless they have violated the Immigration Act or the federal constitution.

COMMENT

On Feb 23 this year the Bersih 2.0 steering committee at state level was formed here in Kuching.

There are 31 parliamentary seats at stake in Sarawak. Hence it is important that the general election should be conducted in a clean and fair manner throughout the country including Sarawak and Sabah.

At the last polls, the voter turnout was about 65% on the average. However in the rural areas the turnout was lower than the state average.

Hence Bersih 2.0 feels that it is necessary to intensify voters’ registration exercise through its JOM100 campaign, with the objective to instil awareness among the people of the importance of voting in the coming 13th GE and to register as many voters as possible to ensure they can exercise their democratic rights on polling day.

The  Bersih steering committee was supposed to convene its first meeting on March 10 but an  unfortunate incident with Maria Chin Abdullah ended that plan.

Chin was barred at the Kuching International Airport from entering Sarawak by state immigration officers on orders from Chief Minister Taib Mahmud.

The legal right to bar and the reason to ban are two separate issues and Taib, the state’s top bully, should know this.

The immigration department has the legal power to bar a person if he/she does not possess the entry documents.

But if the person has all the necessary documents, the immigration has no legal right to stop him/her from entering the state as a visitor.

To prevent someone who has all the necessary legal papers to enter Sarawak  is not an act of barring but banning.

In the case of the act of banning someone, the immigration officers must have and provide the reason supported by documentary evidence as to why he/she is not allowed to enter legally as a visitor on a short visit pass.

No valid reason for ban
Like any travellers, Malaysians and foreigners alike, Chin possessed all the necessary travelling documents and yet could not pass through the KIA entry point.

She was instead ordered to return to Peninsular Malaysia on the next available flight.

The immigration officers can legally bar her from entering the state provided she did not possess the necessary legal travelling papers, namely the passport or the identity card.

But she had the said papers and therefore claimed to have full legal right to enter the state and yet was prevented from doing so.

This act of imposing an entry ban on her violated her legal and democratic right to enter Sarawak as a visitor.

There are two valid reasons as to why a person of any nationality may be banned to enter the state.

The first reason is if  he/she intends to seek employment or take away business opportunities in the state in accordance with Sections 62-66 of the Immigration Act.

Secondly if the person had committed a serious offence/crime directly or indirectly and his/her entry is detrimental to the authority that rejects his/her entry.

These accusations must be supported by documentary evidence . If they could not do so, then  banning is firstly a violation of her legal right to enter the state legally, and secondly it is an act of defamation on her character, especially when the incident was reported widely in the media.

In the public view Chin must have committed a serious offence earlier on related directly or indirectly to the authority or persons that imposed  such ban.

Sue Taib, please
The immigration officers’ lame excuse was that the ban was a ‘directive’ from the top which is none other than Taib.

Chin only came to chair the first meeting of Sarawak Bersih steering committee.

She was not even involved in any legitimate assembly or political gathering. Being a fellow Malaysian she can travel freely to any state in Malaysia.

This is guaranteed in Article 9(2) of the federal constitution.The special immigration power of the  state is mentioned in Sections 62-66  that gives the state government the right to regulate the entry of West Malaysians to protect the employment and business opportunities of the Sarawak and Sabah people from being taken away by the Semananjung Malaysians.

The state government cannot stop Malaysians from the peninsula or anyone for that matter to enter the state for any other purposes.

There are a long list of reputable personalities from Peninsular Malaysia who were banned at one time or another, among them were Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, S Ambiga, Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Lee Lam Thye, R.Sivarasa and now Chin. All of them have reputable records.

They came on social visits and had no intention to seek jobs or deprived the locals in any economic activities  in the state.

I suggest all the victims of Taib’s abuses of the special immigration right to jointly sue the Chief Minister for violation of their legal right to enter Sarawak and for defamation of character, and to claim for RM500 million in damages.

If Taib thinks that his immigration power is absolute, then let him try to bar the Prime Minister or any federal minister  from entering  the state.

Sarawak Bersih adopts two issues
It is high time that the BN at national level appoints a new state BN chairman in Sarawak to ensure there are no more gross abuses of power not only on immigration matters but other issues that affect the people of the state.

Sarawak Bersih hereby wishes to put on record that we condemn and strongly protest  the action of the immigration officers and the Chief Minister of Sarawak for wrongful act of banning Maria Chin from entering Sarawak.

We also propose that these two issues be adopted by the Bersih steering committee at the national level:

Electoral reform No 9:  which is that the National Registration Department (NRD) to check the identity cards of voters at every polling station.

Due to rampant use of fake identity cards by the illegals to vote especially in Sabah and Semenanjung Malaysia, the NRD should set up counters in every polling station to check on the IC of every voter.This is to ensure only Malaysian citizens can vote with original ICs.

Those illegals with fake ICs should not only be disallowed to vote but arrested on the spot because they have committed two offences – in possession of fake ICs  and trying to use them to vote.

The  police should station their personnel at every polling station to arrest the culprits.

Electoral reform No 10: wherein the Election Commission allows those whose names are erased from the electoral rolls to be allowed to vote.
There had been many instances where the names of the voters were erased from the electoral rolls without their knowledge and permission.

We  urge all political parties to bring both copies of the 2008 and the GE 13 electoral rolls to ensure those whose names do not appear in the 13th GE electoral roll but appeared  in the 2008
electoral roll, to make a protest on the spot and demand that these voters be allowed to vote.

All political parties must ensure their representatives carry two set of copies of these electoral rolls at every polling station to ensure this polling malpractice can be stopped.

Awang Abdillah is a political analyst, writer and FMT columnist. He is also a member of the Sarawak Bersih committee.