KUALA Sepetang assemblyman Chua Yee Ling, who was deported from Sarawak yesterday, said she still failed to understand why she was barred entry into the state.

The PKR rep from Perak had been invited by Sarawak PKR to visit old folks’ homes and orphanages, and attend the Pink Diamond dinner at the Miri Eastwood Valley Golf and Country Club yesterday.

Chua was at the dinner when she was picked up by state Immigration officers and deported.

She slammed the state government for practising double standards, targeting opposition politicians and being undemocratic.

“I don’t blame the Immigration officers because they were just doing their job. Instead, I reserve my condemnation for the abuse of power by the Sarawak government,” she said in a statement today.

Sarawak and its neighbour, Sabah, have autonomy in immigration matters. Both Barisan Nasional-controlled state governments have occasionally barred politicians and civil society leaders from the peninsula from entering the states.

Chua said she respected Sarawak’s autonomy and power, but “this responsibility must not be abused in this undemocratic, uncivilised and unprofessional manner”.

“It is clearly a selective ban, a double standard that applies only to opposition leaders.

“Until now, I still do not understand why Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg did this to me. What was the basis of banning and deporting me?

“I don’t understand how (I am) a threat to national security, and I demand an answer from the chief minister.”

She shared details of her deportation, which she said shocked her and was “totally unnecessary”.

She said she was abruptly picked up by Immigration officers in the middle of the dinner to be directly deported to Kuala Lumpur.

Chua was in the middle of her speech when she realised that the officers were waiting for her below the stage.

She was soon informed by colleagues that the officers were there to escort her to Miri airport.

“I was fortunate that they were blocked by PKR members, but my colleagues told me that the officers still had to take me away as instructed.

“I assured everyone that I was willing to cooperate fully. I demanded that they did not disrupt the dinner.”

The dinner, she said, was a success despite “all the nonsense and distractions”.

Prior to her deportation, PKR’s Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin and Petaling Jaya Selatan MP Hee Loy Sian were denied entry soon after arriving in Miri yesterday.

Lembah Pantai MP and PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar cancelled plans to attend a fundraising dinner and the Purple Women’s Walk in Miri following the action against Zuraida and Hee.

She said today she had received confirmation that she was on the list of those barred from entering Sarawak.

Earlier today, PKR and PH president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the Sarawak government was “scared of its own shadow” when asked to comment on the entry bans and Chua’s deportation. – September 24, 2017.