Bersih spreads its’ wings to Sarawak
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 bar 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.
Awang Abdillah, Chairman, Bersih steering committee, Sarawak
On 23rd february 2012, the Bersih steering committee at state level was formed. There are 31 parliamentary seats at stake in Sarawak. Hence, it is important that the GE should be conducted in a clean and fair manner throughout the country including Sarawak and Sabah.
The state voters turnout was about 65% on the average. However, in the rural areas the turnout was lower than the state average. Hence, Bersih feels that it is necessary to intensify voters’ registration exercise through 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 especially young voters as possible to ensure they can exercise their democratic rights on polling day.
The Bersih steering committee was supposed to convene its 1st meeting at 10am on 10th march 2012. However, an unfortunate incident happened when Puan Maria Chin Abdullah, one of Bersih’s national leaders, was prevented at the Kuching international airport from entering Sarawak, by state immigration officers on the orders from none other than Pehin Sri Taib Mahmud the Chief Minister of Sarawak.
The legal right to bar and the reason to ban
Taib Mahmud, the state immigration special rights bully should know that to bar and to ban anybody from entering the state are two different issues.
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 bar 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 immigation 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.
Like any travellers Malaysians and foreigners alike, Puan Maria Chin possessed all the necessary travelling documents and yet could not pass through the KIA entry point and was instead ordered to return to Semenanjung Malaysia on the next available flight.
The immigration officers could legally bar her from entering the state provided she did not possess the necessary legal travelling papers namely the passport or the identity card. 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 was an act of imposing an entry ban upon her which
violated her legal and democratic right to enter as a visitor. Such action must be supported by documentary evidence as to the reasons for the ban.
There are two valid reasons as to why a person of any nationality may be banned to enter the state – firstly that he/she intends to seek employment or grab business opportunities in the state in accordance with Sections 62-66 of the Immigration Act or that the person has committed a serious offence/crime directly or indirectly and his/her entry is detrimental to the authority that rejects his/her entry.
The 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’s view, Puan Maria Chin must have committed a serious offence earlier on related directly or indirectly to the authority or persons that imposed such ban. The immigration officers gave a lame excuse that the ban was a directive from the top which is none other than the immigration special right abuser Taib bin Mahmud.
Puan Maria Chin came only to chair the Bersih steering committee’s first meeting. She was not even involved in any legitimate assembly, political gathering and the like. 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 give 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 West Malaysians.
The state government cannot stop those West Malaysians or anyone for that matter to enter the state for any other purposes unless the state government can prove they come to seek employment and grab business opportunities or have
committed a serious wrongdoing against the State authorities.
There are a long list of reputable personalities from West Malaysia who were banned at one time or another, among them were Tengku Razaleigh, Datuk S Amiga, Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Lee Lam Thye, R. Sivarasa and recently Puan Maria Chin Abdullah.
They came on social visits and had no intention to seek employment or were involved in business activities in the state and have good reputable records.
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.
The Kuching International airport (KIA) has an international reputation that handles millions of tourists and visitors every year, local and foreign. There is no reason for Taib to ban anyone of them unless for reasons as stated. Taib’s action has marred the KIA status as an international airport and Sarawak as a popular destination for tourists and visitors, and has created animosity between West Malaysians and the people of Sarawak.
If Taib thinks that his immigration power is absolute, then let him try to ban the Prime Minister or any federal minister from entering the state.
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.
Bersih Sarawak hereby wishes to put on record that we condemn and strongly protest the act of the immigration officers and the Chief Minister of Sarawak for the wrongful ban on Puan Maria Chin from entering Sarawak.
We also propose that these 2 issues be adopted by the Bersih steering committee at the national level as well:
1) Electoral reform No. 9 – Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara 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 Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) 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 the original ICs. Those illegals with fake ICs should not only be disallowed to vote but arrested on the spot because they have committed 2 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.
2) Electoral reform no 10 – The EC allows those whose names are erased from the electoral rolls 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 protest on the spot and demand that these voters be allowed to vote. All political parties must ensure their representatives carry 2 sets of copies of these electoral rolls at every polling station to ensure this polling malpractice can be stopped.
