KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — The deportation of PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar from Sabah yesterday was ordered by the state government, the Sabah Immigration Department said today.
The Lembah Pantai MP was barred from entering the Borneo state yesterday evening upon arriving in Kota Kinabalu to join in the Pesta Kaamatan, or the Harvest Festival, celebration together with the Kadazan-Dusun and Murut communities.
“The order comes from time to time,” Sabah Immigration director Noor Alam Khan Abdul Wahid Khan was quoted as saying by The Star Online today, when asked who else was banned from entering the state.
The Malaysian Insider could not reach Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman for comment at press time.
Nurul Izzah called the ban on her entry into Sabah undemocratic and said she would challenge it in court.
“If I am a threat to the people of Sabah, then give me the rationale and explanation to this accusation,” she told reporters earlier today.
The Sabah government is not obliged to provide reasons in exercising its right to bar non-Sabahans from entering the state.
Another PKR vice-president, Chua Tian Chang, was similarly barred last April from entering Sabah.
Leaders from both sides of the political divide have immediately condemned Nurul Izzah’s deportation.
Last night, Umno’s Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Moktar Radin had described the fiasco as a “disaster” and a “big mistake” while PKR’s Darell Leiking said the controversy had “hurt our state’s reputation as hosts”.
“I believe this is a big mistake… and it needs to be corrected,” Bung Moktar tweeted on his @MyKinabatangan Twitter handle, tagging Nurul Izzah and Musa in his tweet yesterday.
“I don’t understand why Nurul was not allow to enter Sabah. If it’s true, then this is a mistake and a disaster,” added the Umno supreme council member.
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