Bersih leaders claim harassment at airports

It is nothing but intimidation and another attack on civil society, says S Ambiga.

KUALA LUMPUR: Election reform watchdog Bersih 2.0 today claimed that its steering committee members were being harassed at airports when taking flights abroad.

“They were clearly targeting our steering committee members. It is nothing but harassment and intimidation. It is another attack on civil society,” said Bersih 2.0 co-chairman S Ambiga.

Ambiga, who would be flying abroad next week, added: “I would be surprised if I’m subjected to the same kind of treatment.”

Thus far, four Bersih steering members have been harassed when attempting to travel abroad.

Maria Chin Abdullah was the first to face the harassment from immigtation officials when she took a flight on Sept 18 from KLIA to Nepal.

The other members were former Bar Council president Yeo Yang Poh, academician activist Wong Chin Huat and Bar Council human rights committee chairman Andrew Khoo.

Police alert stamp on passports

Maria said: “The passport verifying machines somehow could not process our passports. We were made to wait for it to be processed manually by the immigration officials.”

In the latest episode yesterday, Khoo’s passport was imprinted with a police alert stamp before being allowed to take a flight to Bangkok for a security conference.

Wong faced a similar experience as Maria on Sept 17.

“I was to travel to Hong Kong from KLIA on Aug 17 but the machine could not verify my passport and was manually cleared by the officials,” said Wong.

“I endured the inconvenience for about 10 minutes before I was allowed to get on my flight.”

Yeo said he encountered the problem twice last month when he travelled from Johor to Singapore.

“The process of checking and stamping a passport takes about 20 seconds. I was directed to the immigration office where I was made to wait and my passport was photocopied.

“The officer then made a phone call before finally giving me the clearence. It was not their fault. They said that they were acting on instructions from another department,” said Yeo.