Anwar unaware Cambodian opposition was in Malaysia - ministry

 

Following a report by Cambodian media that Malaysian authorities deported leading opposition figure Sam Rainsy, the Foreign Ministry has issued a statement that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was not aware of his presence in the country.

“With regard to the presence of the former chief opposition member of Cambodia Rainsy (above) in Malaysia, the Foreign Ministry wishes to reiterate that the prime minister was not informed of his arrival to this country,” it said in a brief statement.

“Nonetheless, Rainsy has left Malaysia (on Wednesday) morning and no public programme was held during his stay here,” it added.

This came after Cambodian news outlet Khmer Times ran a report claiming Rainsy was deported by Malaysian authorities which had prevented him and his entourage from holding a meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

The report quoted Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen as saying that Rainsy had entered Malaysia via a private jet while travelling on a French passport. This purportedly allowed him to evade the scrutiny of the Malaysian authorities.

Hun Sen also expressed thanks to his Malaysian counterpart for the expulsion, according to the report.

“Thank you, His Excellency Anwar, prime minister of Malaysia, for promising me four times not to let this (Rainsy) come. He does not know, they come from the private sector and use French passports (…)

“His Excellency Anwar told me clearly (Rainsy was) not to come, and I told him that if he came, the (Cambodian) government and the (Malaysian) government would not look at each other,” Hun Sen was quoted as saying.

Cambodian strongman Hun Sen is one of the world’s longest-serving leaders and his regime recently shut down leading independent media Voice Of Democracy after taking issue with a news report about his son.

Rainsy, former leader of the Cambodian opposition, has been living in self-imposed exile in Paris since 2015 but had announced plans to return to Cambodia in 2019 to rally opposition against Hun Sen’s rule.

However, attempts to do so have been thwarted by airlines’ refusal to allow him to board, after the Cambodian government reportedly threatened airlines that they could be prosecuted as accomplices of an attempted coup.

Thailand, from where Rainsy had planned to travel by land into Cambodia, had denied him entry upon Cambodia’s request.

Rainsy’s last public appearance in Malaysia was in 2019, when he and another opposition figure, Mu Sochua, met with Malaysian lawmakers from both sides of the political divide for an informal meeting in Parliament.

They were invited by then Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar. - Mkini