Student activist Joshua Wong denied entry to Malaysia to speak about Occupy protests
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 26 May, 2015, 1:40pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 26 May, 2015, 7:18pm
Joyce Ng [email protected]
Joshua Wong speaks to members of the media at Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: EPA
Joshua Wong Chi-fung, a key student leader of Occupy protests in Hong Kong last year, was denied entry to Malaysia this morning.
Wong had planned to attend four seminars to talk about the pro-democracy movement and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in four Malaysian cities this week.
But Wong, convenor of student group Scholarism, sent a voice message to the Hong Kong media at 12.45pm, saying he had been barred from entering the country at Penang International Airport, shortly before he boarded a return flight to Hong Kong.
“Today I was invited by the civil society in Malaysia to share my experience and my views on the Umbrella movement and the June 4 incident,” Wong said. “Now the Malaysian government has denied me entry and demanded I return to Hong Kong. I’m getting on the return flight.”
Speaking at the arrival hall of the Hong Kong International Airport, Wong said the denial of entry was "totally unexpected" and he "deeply regretted" the Malaysian authorities' decision.
"The Hong Kong Immigration Department or the Security Bureau should follow up the matter, because a permanent resident's right to free movement has been denied," he said, adding that he believed "political factors" had a role to play in the issue.
Joshua Wong had been barred from entering the country at Penang International Airport.
He recalled that at the Penang airport, customs officers kept him waiting for half an hour before telling him that it was "a government order" that he must immediately take the next flight back on the plane he arrived on. He was also stopped in making a phone call to the event organiser.
"I understand the mainland [Chinese] government may see me as a sensitive person, but I am not here to fight for universal suffrage in Malaysia. Why take this step and close the door to me? I’m only there to share my experience with the local Chinese. I’m not there to plant a revolution," Wong said in a statement.
Wong also lamented that he had lost a chance to leave home for a while and get some fresh air amid the intense debate on political reform.
"In Hong Kong the pressure is intense and there’s only work, work and work apart from sleeping," he said. "I want to know how many other countries have blacklisted me. If there are [any], please let me know, so I don’t have to be returned only after I book the air tickets and a hotel room ... The authoritarian regimes are sick."
The Malaysian consulate in Hong Kong confirmed Wong was denied entry.
"Based on records available to me, the named subject is listed as 'NTL' – not allowed to land. I am unable to furnish any reason due to it being a confidential matter beyond my authority to discern,” immigration attache Wang Syaifuldin told the South China Morning Post.
According to online news outlet Malaysiakini, Malaysia’s Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claimed to have no knowledge that immigration had banned the 18-year-old activist from entering the country.
The minister explained that if immigration banned a foreign citizen, particularly an activist from entering the country, it was mainly for reasons of national security. When asked why Wong was detained at Penang airport, he said he needed to speak with the director general of immigration on that.
Ahmad said the Malaysian government holds an open attitude to differences of opinion and on the political ideology of activists. However, if foreign activists or citizens could affect the country negatively, the government would be stern on them, he said.
According to Wong’s Facebook page, he was to attend a series of events co-organised by a non-government organisation called the Working Committee for the 26th Anniversary Commemoration of June 4 Incident in Malaysia, and seven other local activist and youth groups.
He was scheduled to speak at a seminar on social movements tonight in Penang, another similar forum in Ipoh tomorrow, and give a talk with a Singaporean activist in Johor on Thursday.
Wong was also set to join lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung in Kuala Lumpur on Friday to give a talk on the Tiananmen Square military crackdown and the Occupy movement.
Event organisers called the government’s move "political suppression" and demanded it explain why Wong was refused entry and whether it keeps a blacklist on immigration.
"The committee was waiting at Penang airport and approached the Immigration Department many times, but we were not given a clear explanation," the group said.
It is the second year the group has organised a June 4 event, but the first time a foreign speaker has been denied entry. The talks will be held as usual, the organisers said.
Wong's group Scholarism, together with the Federation of Students comprising university students, initiated a week-long school boycott in the run up to Occupy in late September last year. On September 26, Wong and other student leaders dashed into the forecourt of the government headquarters, which triggered the start of the 79-day mass sit-ins. Wong was arrested
