A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Md Raus Sharif today dismissed Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua's leave to appeal against the ban on him from travelling to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, two years ago.

Justice Raus refused to grant leave to three questions posed by Pua's lawyer Gobind Singh Deo on one's right to travel abroad.

"The law (on this issue) is settled in the Loh Wai Kong case. The appeal is dismissed," the judge ruled in the Federal Court.

The case cited here is where Loh sought a ruling from the court that Malaysian citizens are entitled to travel overseas as a fundamental right under Article 5 of the Federal Constitution.

However, in that 1979 case, the Federal Court then ruled that there was no such right.

The three questions posed before the apex court today are:

  • Whether in construing the words 'personal liberty' in Article 5(1) of the Federal Constitution, one must look at the other clauses of the Article?
     
  • If the answer to the above question is in the negative, whether Article 9 in Part II of the Constitution is to be read generously and liberally to include the rights of a citizen to travel abroad in terms of freedom of movement; and
     
  • If the answer to the second question is in the affirmative, whether Section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 falls within the restrictions included in Article 9(2) of the Constitution?

On July 22, 2015, Pua was barred from travelling to Yogyakarta to attend a conference, after then inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar informed the Immigration Department's director-general, via a letter dated July 15, 2015.

Khalid stated in the latter that the DAP politician was being investigated under Section 124B of the Penal Code on an alleged activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy.

However, Pua, who is also DAP national publicity secretary, was being investigated as a witness, not as a suspect.

Following this, Pua, filed an application for judicial review, in August 2015, to quash the Immigration Department's decision to issue the order to ban him from travelling abroad.

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur dismissed the application, ruling that the right to travel abroad was not a constitutional right for all.

The Court of Appeal had, last July, ruled that no rights are absolute, including the right to travel abroad.

The decision today may affect the decisions for Bersih 2.0 chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah and cartoonist Zunar, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ul-Haque, who are both also challenging their travel bans overseas.