 KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — Three PKR leaders said they were denied entry into Sarawak today, just days before the Balingian by-election in the East Malaysian state this Saturday. Rafizi Ramli, Chua Tian Chang and Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail from the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lynchpin party today all complained that they were held at the Sibu airport and subsequently deported back to Kuala Lumpur. “Every day we (opposition politicians) are being persecuted: at court, at airport, denied entry etc yet there r ppl who expect us to tolerate,” Rafizi tweeted from his account @rafiziramli today. “We can only behave like opposition MPs in UK Aussie etc if BN fed gov behaves like the democratic gov of UK Aussie etc,” the PKR strategy director added. PKR secretary-general Saifuddin was the first to be deported, after arriving at Sibu at 11am today to assist in the party’s campaign for the by-election, while Rafizi and Chua were deported together later in the afternoon. The Malay Mail Online was unable to reach the trio at the time of writing, but PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil confirmed their deportations in a media statement. Newly-minted Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem was reported by Borneo Post Online last Sunday as saying that he has a list of people who will be prohibited from entering the state as part of a bid to keep out “trouble-makers”, such as racists and religious bigots from peninsular Malaysia. He did not specify, however, who these people were. Sarawak and Sabah have autonomy over immigration in the two states and occasionally shuts their doors to those from the peninsula whom they do not welcome. Ahead of the Sarawak state election in 2011, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, then the chairman of election watchdog Bersih 2.0, was similarly barred from entering the state. Ambiga and PR leaders Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Rafizi, Nurul Izzah Anwar and Lim Kit Siang were also found last year to be on a blacklist barring them from entering Sabah. MMail
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