Ambiga to challenge ‘ridiculous’ Sabah travel ban

Malay Mail
by PATHMA SUBRAMANIAM

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan has vowed to challenge the latest ban on her entry into Sabah, insisting that the state authorities have no valid reason to stop her from traveling to the east Malaysian state.

 

The renowned lawyer and human rights activist labelled the travel ban “ridiculous” and accused the state authorities of being overly paranoid of her presence in Sabah.

“The grounds to deny entry are very narrow, it is not to be used at their whims and fancy, so I will challenge this,” she told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

“I don’t know what they are paranoid about... in this day and age, these types of restrictions are meaningless, when there are other ways to go about it,” she added.

According to the former Malaysian Bar president, she was informed of the travel ban through correspondence with the Sabah Immigration Department last Friday.

She explained that she had written to the department on November 11 to inform the agency of her trip to Sabah on November 25 for an event by pro-unity group Negara-Ku, of which she is a patron.

The human rights activist was scheduled to attend the event along with the group’s co-patron Tan Sri Simon Sipaun and prominent Sabah politician Datuk Dr Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan.

In response, Ambiga said the department’s director-general Noor Alam Khan A Wahid Khad wrote back to say that she would not be permitted into the east Malaysian state.

No reasons were cited, she added.

“I was not seeking for permission, I wrote to them informing them of my visit so that I don’t waste time traveling,” said Ambiga, who was also the co-chair of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0).

She said the ban appeared quite out of the blue as prior to Election 2013, she had similarly written in to the department and was informed then that there were no restrictions on her entry into Sabah.

“This is my country and I want to have the freedom to go around... there are very specific grounds in refusing entry but my objective is for the sole purpose of engaging in non-partisan community activity,” said Ambiga.

Despite her travel ban, the activist said Negara-Ku will proceed with its programme as scheduled and she will participate in the forum via video conferencing or Skype.

Negara-Ku’s nationwide roadshow began two weeks ago in Malacca, and will be taking place in Perak, Johor, Negri Sembilan, Penang, Sabah and Kuala Lumpur.

This is not the first time Ambiga has been barred from East Malaysia.

On April 15, 2011, she was refused entry into Sarawak upon arrival at the Kuching Airport during the state’s election to partake in a 10-day election campaign. She was forced to leave on the next available return flight.

Ambiga has also been unsuccessful in seeking for a judicial review over Sarawak government’s decision, as the Federal Court felt that she ought to have taken up the judicial review at the High Court in Sarawak.