by Lim Guan Eng

DAP will fight in court for Malaysians overseas whose passports were revoked by the BN Federal government because of political involvement in opposing the corruption and abuse of power of BN. DAP will not stand idly by and watch Malaysians persecuted and victimised merely for exercising their fundamental human rights of expressing their political beliefs.

According to news reports, Immigration Director-General Datuk Alias Ahmad has confirmed that the Immigration Department would revoke the passports of 6,564 Malaysians who have been blacklisted for tarnishing the image of the country overseas, including those who took part in demonstrations overseas. Alias had earlier denied a Malay daily report quoting him as citing Section 8 of the Immigration Act 1959/63 or the Passports Act 1966 to support the decision to cancel the passports of blacklisted Malaysians.

However, by referring to the case of Federal Government vs Loh Wai Kong 1979, he insisted that the government has the right to “issue, not issue, delay the issuance of or revoke a passport”. Alias has also assured that the revocation of the passports will be done “justly”.

This “reassurance” is a mockery of the rights of Malaysians, especially when former Bar Council President and Bersih 2.0 co-chairperson Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan has pointed out that the Immigration Department does not have the right to do so, citing a 2009 Federal Court ruling that disapproved of the decision in 1979. In other words any such attempt to revoke Malaysian passports who are overseas is unlawful.

Although Alias has now promised to make further clarifications next week, the DAP demands that Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Najib Razak immediately make the government’s stand clear and to reassure Malaysians that their rights will not be revoked simply for dissenting peacefully. Such a threat is not only against natural justice, undemocratic and an act of political retribution but also goes against the very grain of national reconciliation that has been proposed by Najib himself.

DAP fully supports Datuk Ambiga in demanding that the Federal government abandons its attempt to frighten and strike fear into overseas Malaysians with threats to revoke their passports for opposing BN. I will direct the head of DAP Legal team headed by DAP MP for Puchong Gobind Singh Deo to get DAP’s lawyers take up cases of any Malaysian whose passports were revoked because of their support for PR or their opposition for BN. — The Rocket