SIBU: The state government has the prerogative to deny a person or group of persons from entering the state if it considers them detrimental to the state’s peace, harmony and solidarity.
In stating this yesterday, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the right was stated in the constitution and the 18-Point Agreement of 1963.
“The Immigration Department is only enforcing that right based on the state’s right. No one is allowed to deny that right or he is denying the immigration right of the state under the constitution and the agreement,” he explained.
The Santubong MP was responding to a news report on PAS Sarawak information chief Andri Zulkarnean Hamden’s claim of being told by state Immigration Department that PR parties and NGOs must write to the department to find out if their party leaders or members were blacklisted or banned from entering the state.
Andri was also reported to have expressed disappointment that their central committee member Mazlan Aliman was deported by the Immigration Department after arriving at Sibu Airport on Feb 22 from Johor.
He further alleged that the state government’s action against Mazlan was inappropriate as the politician came to meet grassroots supporters.
Wan Junaidi said: “PAS leaders must learn this and don’t shout about the constitutional and Agreement right of the people in Sarawak and Sabah and at the same time demand for the abrogation of the right in that.”
He claimed that PAS and PKR had done enough to split the Malays by poisoning their minds with lies, double talks and slanders.
He reiterated that it was only right that Sarawak government denied entry to those it considered as having the potential to create a similar trend in Sarawak.