PKR Sarawak is testing the goodwill and immigration autonomy of the state government with its invitation to national leaders, who are on the state’s so-called “immigration blacklist” to its Raya open house in Kuching tomorrow.

Vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar and Women chief Zuraida Kamaruddin, two of many politicians and organisation leaders from the peninsula declared persona non grata by Sarawak, are the guests.

“We hope they would be allowed in,” Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian said when asked if Nurul and Zuraidah are off the blacklist and could attend the open house.

“We’re hoping for some goodwill from the government in the spirit of Raya,” said the party’s chief election strategist, Baharuddin Mokhsen.

Zuraida, the Ampang MP, is scheduled to arrive in Kuching at 1pm tomorrow while Nurul, the Lembah Pantai MP, is expected at 7pm.

While in Kuching, Nurul, who is also the daughter of Pakatan Haparan de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, will also attend a “town hall” meeting with youth on Sunday, which PKR billed it as “Sesi teh tarik dan borak santai bersama Nurul Izzah (teh tarik and chat with Nurul Izzah)” in Kampung Pinang Jawa, an urban Malay village in Putra Jaya.

Nurul was barred when she tried to enter Sarawak via Kuching in December 2015.

She was supposed to unveil PKR’s candidates for the Sarawak elections.

The denial of entry came after the Sabah assembly voted to bar her from the state after she was photographed meeting with Jacel Kiram, the daughter of the self-proclaimed Sulu sultan, who masterminded the 2013 Lahad Datu incursion.

Zuraida was barred in January last year. She had also flown in for the Sarawak elections.

The 12 PKR Wanita exco members, including deputy president Haniza Talha and vice-president Noorshan Abu Samah who travelled with her, were, however, allowed to enter the state.

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg showed some goodwill in June last year when he allowed PKR leaders on the ban list to enter and remain in the state for a week to pay their last respects and attend the funeral of their murdered party colleague and native land rights activist Bill Kayong.

Among those who took advantage of the temporary lifting of the ban were Nurul and fellow vice-president and Batu MP, Tian Chua.

Only last week, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) deputy secretary-general Bawani S. Kaniapan, was denied entry.

Bawani had travelled to Kuching to attend her friend’s wedding.

She joins PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli; Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua; Subang MP R. Sivarasa; former PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail; Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali; former Bersih 2.0 chairman S. Ambiga; social activists Steven Ng, Cynthia Gabriel, Wong Chin Huat and Johan Tan; Sabah opposition leader Jeffrey Kitingan; academic Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah; and Umno’s red shirt leader Jamal Md Yunos, to name a few, on the list of politicians and social activists from the peninsula barred from the state.

Islamic preacher and Indian fugitive, Zakir Naik, is also reportedly on the ban list.

Sarawak had often used its autonomy on immigration to bar the entry of people it deemed as “extremists, religious bigots and racists”. – August 4, 2017.