Travelling abroad is a privilege which may be stopped if you insult the government?
Umar Mukhtar
No kidding! Because your travelling abroad is a privilege, the Director-General of the Immigration Department can curtail it by following the orders of other agencies which are empowered by law to do so. That’s because the DG of Immigration is not empowered to do that by himself. He has to rely on other laws. This is because having been granted a privilege, you are entitled to be treated in a manner befitting a holder of that privilege. Otherwise, it will be administrative chaos.
If it involved something objective, like a bankruptcy, you will be advised to consult the Insolvency Department and you can always check if you are a subject of bankruptcy proceedings without your knowledge. Say it was an administrative mistake, you are then entitled to ask for the order to be revoked because no one is entitled to take away, without legal mandate, a privilege that has been granted and having a passport is such a privilege.
That is the legal fine print ignored by those who make it sound that just because having a passport is a privilege, they can stop your travel plans as and when they see fit. That is grossly incorrect.
Now comes the sixty-four thousand ringgit question. What if the allegation is subjective? The police or other enforcement agencies can cite their reasons not to allow a person, who they need to talk to in connection with an investigation or crime, to leave the country. Although that judgement is subjective, the police and other agencies are given a broad leeway for preventive action in matters that may adversely affect the nation.
The problem arises when other agencies with such subjective powers are liable to abuse them for less than bona fide reasons. Such as to protect a ruling political party or a person, which is a far cry from protecting, say, our national interests irrespective of our political beliefs. I can see how insulting a religion may cause social upheaval, but insulting the government? And what does insulting comprise? Not agreeing with, being critical of and running down the government?
I know that our democracy is not perfect but surely if we are just being critical that does not amount to deserving an arbitrary punishment.
Do you mean that once a government is elected it is protected against any kind of criticism? As if it suddenly becomes God and to attack it is to be sacrilegious and therefore criminal? Malaysia,the nation, and the ruling government, are different entities. One is the sovereign state and the other is appointed by the people’s wishes.
Is it because cartoonist Zunar’s drawings, which were critical of the government, were exhibited boldly in public in Switzerland after it won the UN award for peace? Some apple-polisher is thinking that he shouldn’t have even been allowed to go abroad to receive the award – which may explain what happened to Maria Chin after she won an international human rights award.
Why don’t we just withdraw from the UN which is biased and ignores the Palestinian fight for peace in favour of trivial matters and yet calls it fighting for peace? Better still, why don’t we all stay in this coconut shell and be ‘good boys’? After all, these few years it seems that the whole world is against us, laughing at us. They must be jealous of our ‘harmony’ and docility!
The thing is, will people will be scared even to think and use their head in case they lose their ‘privilege’ to travel abroad? Maybe I should Make a police report on Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who is constantly embarrassing the country with his criticism of BN and Prime Minister Najib Razak? Why is he free to travel abroad? Or does he enjoy special privileges which I don’t have or maybe it’s just that the officials don’t have the balls to stop him?
To maintain a balance there must check and balance. Who checks on the guy who may impose his values such that I may not travel abroad when all I said was ‘fook you BN’ and to many people I am not even cussing? Why is BN practising stuff that makes ordinary people angry? You want us to kick you out? Oh, I forgot that poor people don’t travel abroad, so this practice won’t affect your voters. So keep them ignorant and poor, BN! Is that an insult?
