{"id":3865,"date":"2013-02-19T13:03:54","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T05:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=3865"},"modified":"2013-02-20T17:12:07","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T09:12:07","slug":"australian-senators-deportation-proves-bn-frightened-paranoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/australian-senators-deportation-proves-bn-frightened-paranoid\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Senator’s deportation proves BN frightened, paranoid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>KUALA LUMPUR, 19 February: In the latest national embarrassment, Malaysia has been subjected to international ridicule with words such as ‘xenophobic’ being used to describe the recent\u00a015-hr detention and deportation of Australian Senator Nick Xenophon.<\/p>\n

Xenophon called his deportation “a big mistake” as it had backfired on Putrajaya, telling Australian media that it revealed how \u201cdire and critical\u201d the state of Malaysian democracy was.<\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald today commented that the\u00a0Najib administration is frightened that Malaysians are ready for true democratic freedom.<\/p>\n

Sydney Morning Herald international editor Peter Hartcher wrote in a commentary that\u00a0half a century of Barisan Nasional rule has yet to turn the country into a mature democracy, as BN fears that a truly free and fair election would threaten its grip on power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a threat to Malaysia\u2019s national security, but it is a threat to the ruling party\u2019s grip on power,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Australia’s Foreign Minister Bob Carr has expressed his surprise and disappointment at the incident, while former Australian premier Kevin Rudd condemned Xenophon\u2019s detention as unacceptable and urged Canberra to be \u201crobust\u201d in response.<\/p>\n

What is BN hiding?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang said the Xenophon incident confirmed that the BN government is \u201cauthoritarian\u201d and that Prime Minister Najib Razak is a \u201cfalse democrat\u201d.<\/p>\n

“The whole world are now asking \u2013 what has the Election Commission and the UMNO\/BN government got to hide that they are so afraid of independent foreign observers to the 13GE as having to strain foreign relations and brave international condemnation as to detain and deport Xenophon?”<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has condemned the deportation as a \u201cgross abuse of power\u201d, pointing out that it violated international protocol in treating lawmakers, particularly those from the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to remind Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Najib Razak that he has no right to treat visitors as enemies of the state merely because they are critical of his Umno-led administration,\u201d Anwar said.<\/p>\n

Bersih 2.0 co-chair Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan also tweeted that Putrajaya\u2019s move to deport Xenophon was a demonstration of \u201cparanoia\u201d about the coming Election 2013.<\/p>\n

Australian delegation cancels trip\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Xenophon had arrived with a delegation of Australian MPs in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday to call on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz, and Election Commission officials. However upon arrival, he was detained in the Low Cost Carrier Terminal and unceremoniously deported. The Australian delegation have since cancelled their trip.<\/p>\n

According to the official explanation by Immigration Department director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad, Xenophon was barred from entering Malaysia under section 8(3) of the Immigration Act for “making statements that allegedly tarnished Malaysia\u2019s image.”<\/p>\n

Alias highlighted Xenophon\u2019s remarks about the Malaysian government being \u201cauthoritarian\u201d in handling last April\u2019s Bersih 3.0 rally for free and fair elections.<\/p>\n

Mahathir: “We dont have to entertain them”<\/strong><\/p>\n

As if treating an international observer and lawmaker as an “enemy of the state” was not obnoxious enough, Malaysian officials have defended their actions. Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein insisting that it was done in a lawful manner, and was “not a political move”.<\/p>\n

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed was quick to chime in that although the Australian government was free the criticise, the\u00a0Malaysia\u2019s government had the right to enforce its laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he comes here with no good intentions, might as well not come here. If they want to criticise, they can criticise. We don\u2019t have to entertain them,\u201d he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

The Election Commission (EC) uncharacteristically leapt to the immigration department’s defence, saying that the officials were “merely performing their duty”. EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar added that it was unjust to judge the fairness of the coming Election 2013 based on Xenophon\u2019s expulsion. -The Rocket<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, 19 February: In the latest national embarrassment, Malaysia has been subjected to international ridicule with words such as ‘xenophobic’ being used to describe the recent\u00a015-hr detention and deportation of Australian Senator Nick Xenophon. Xenophon called his deportation “a big mistake” as it had backfired on Putrajaya, telling Australian media that it revealed how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}