Nurul Izzah barred from entering Sarawak

FMT Reporters

 | December 6, 2015

 Order came from chief minister's office, says Xavier Jayakumar.

KUALA LUMPUR: Nurul Izzah Anwar was barred from entering Sarawak today, on orders believed to have come from the chief minister’s office.
She was stopped by immigration officers on arrival at Kuching airport. Nurul Izzah, a vice-president of PKR, had been on her way to a party ceremony tonight to announce the PKR candidates who will contest the coming Sarawak state elections.
Nurul Izzah, who is MP for Lembah Pantai, announced the news on Twitter at 4pm, saying: “As soon as I arrived in Sarawak, there were immigration officers waiting to escort me back. New ban issued. An abuse of state powers!”
She had been accompanied on the flight by Dr Xavier Jayakumar, also a PKR vice-president, who told reporters at Kuching airport that the immigration officers informed Nurul Izzah the order came from the Chief Minister’s Office, according to Malaysian Insider.
She posted an image of an official notice signed by Sarawak immigration director Kamarol Johari which said “Nurul Izzah is barred under Section 65 (1)(a) of the Immigration Act 1959/63″.
The Sarawak action comes weeks after the Sabah state assembly voted to bar her from the state after she was photographed with Jacel Kiram, daughter of the late Sulu separatist leader, an armed group of whose followers attacked Lahad Datu in 2013.
Nurul Izzah noted that she was now among eight peninsular politicians and activists who had been barred from entering Sarawak, including the MP for Seputeh, DAP’s Teresa Kok; the MP for Batu, PKR vice-president Tian Chua; and the MP for Ampang, PKR Wanita leader Zuraida Kamaruddin. Others included social activists Ambiga Sreenevasan, Maria Chin Abdullah, Hishammuddin Rais, and Adam Adli.