Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claims to have no knowledge of the Immigration Department banning 18-year-old Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong from entering Malaysia.

 

Wong ( photo ) arrived at the Penang airport around noon today but was deported back to Hong Kong soon afterwards.

 

However the home minister, when met at the Parliament lobby, explained if immigration bans a foreign citizen, particularly a foreign activist from entering the country, it’s mainly for reasons of national security.

 

Asked why Wong was detained at Penang Airport, he said he needed to speak with the director-general of immigration on that.

"I will ask my DG, we have to check, (it's on a) case-to-case basis," he said.

 

Zahid added that the government holds an open attitude to differences of opinion and on political ideologies of activists.

 

However, if these foreign activists or citizens could affect the country negatively, the government would be stern with them, he said.

 

Foreign acvtivists unwelcome

 

In the past, William Bourdon, the French lawyer hired by human rights group Suaram for the controversial Scorpene suit in France, was deported from Malaysia upon his arrival in July 2011 to brief Malaysians of the progress of the trial.

In February 2013,the government also expelled Australian Senator Nick Xenophon for allegedly being a national security threat to the country.

On Sept 3, 2014, anti-Lynas activist Natalie Lowrey was barred from entering Malaysia following her participation and arrest in a related local rally.

Wong was originally scheduled to speak at fora in Penang, Ipoh, Johor and Petaling Jaya from May 26 to May 29 as part of a series of events commemorating 26th anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.

Dubbed 'Remembering Tiananmen Massacre', the event will see Leung Kwok-hung, another legislator from Hong Kong, being scheduled to speak together with Wong in Kuala Lumpur this Friday.

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