By J. D. Lovrenciear
This is not a joke. The ban imposed on Lembah Pantai MP’s
entry into Sabah is indeed very serious and demands immediate national redress. A Malaysian citizen and an elected Member of Parliament is
denied entry into a part of the nation. And it is the doing of one man – the Sabah
Chief Minister.
A Malaysian has been denied entry to a part of her own
country. It is as good as throwing a citizen out into the deep ocean. And we
are all supposed to just shake our heads and laugh it off? Or are we to let
this mountain of an abuse and insult to also slip under the bridge of Malaysia’s
democratic nation status? Where is the voice of the rakyat? Where is the voice of the
learned organizations serving as vanguards of good governance? Where indeed is the prime minister of this nation?
Yes certain quarters and individuals have raised the alarm
over this totally undemocratic and absolute abuse of power. But what is the
outcome? The prime minister keeps mum. The Home Minister is
conveniently looking askance. The Chief of Immigration is nowhere to be heard
or seen. The Chief Minister has seemingly vanished on this episode.
Perhaps we should then bring this matter to the attention of
His Royal Highness for after all Yang Berhormat Nurul is a subject of His
Majesty, is she not? When someone in Sabah decides to admit or ban citizens from peninsular
Malaysia it has far reaching implications.
It
implies that Sabah is not an integral part of the
big-picture Malaysia that we have always been heralding. It means that
Sabah
has no respect even for a Parliamentarian lawmaker. That Sabah does not
recognize the subjects of His Royal Highness the sovereign King of
Malaysia.
That then is tantamount to
treason.
For as long as it goes against the rights of a legitimate citizen
who has broken no law in this land, the command to deny entry into Sabah also
goes against the sovereign Crown. Can we live with this insult? Such instances in any other nation would have brought the
masses pounding on the doors of the Who’s Who within the power corridors. But
in Malaysia life goes on unperturbed. Does it not remind us of a fourth-world
regime in the far nook and corner of this planet?
On the one hand we have tens of thousands if not millions of
foreigners who are granted citizenship with no hassle and they continue to make
Sabah and peninsular Malaysia their home sweet home. They even vote in our
history-defining general elections. But we do not even permit a legitimate, born in Malaysia
citizen and bumiputra who also serves the nation as a lawmaker and member of
the august house to enter a part of Malaysia that has one sovereign King and to
whom we are subjects.
This is totally unacceptable. It is not enough to just
reprimand. The law breaker, insulting the sovereign rights of this nation and
His Majesty’s subjects, the plunderer of democracy who is guilty of this total disrespect
to the Crown must be banished from this democratic sovereign nation. The prime minister has a moral duty and categorical
obligation to initiate immediate and effective action. Otherwise he is also
guilty and party to insulting His Majesty and His loyal subjects.
Any amount of silence or lip service or mere admonishment
will only add further insult to the dignity of this nation and is tantamount to
having not just 'blacked-out' but buried parliamentary democracy. It is the most serious post-election act so far against citizens,
parliament, the sovereignty and the tenets of democracy.
We cannot let this
rape on our nation get off the hook. Patriotism too demands that every citizen should
stand up and be counted in returning that dignity and honor to the nation, its people
and King as well as the parliamentary democracy that is the beacon of our
future.
Otherwise, tomorrow any leader is free to draw the lines and
bolt the gates on the perimeter of his territory. And Malaysia would be
permanently disintegrated. Farfetched? Unrealistic? Absurd? Think again.
Is denying a Member of Parliament entry
into a neighboring State within Malaysia not equally ridiculous? Does it not
reflect a shade of what to expect in the future ahead of us? Yes. Then we must rise to defend our King and His Majesty’s territories
if the Prime Minister is incapable of doing so.
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