SARAWAK will not bar the entry of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Lim Kit Siang and other Pakatan Harapan leaders into the state for their first ceramah in Kuching tomorrow, said Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg, dismissing them as “not important”.

However, he said, he would continue to exercise the state’s right to use its immigration powers to bar people it considered undesirables, despite what critics said.

“No problem. They are not extremists. Furthermore, they are not important,” Abang Johari said, referring to the PH leaders, who are expected in the state for the ceramah at the sprawling BDC residential estate in the state capital tomorrow evening.

“I will bar any politician who may be a threat to Sarawak’s unity. Freedom of speech does not mean it can be done at the expense of the rakyat.”

He said it was for this reason that the state had, in the past, barred extremists, like Sungai Besar Umno division chief Jamal Md Yunos and Perkasa’s Ibrahim Ali.

Abang Johari was speaking to reporters after attending Bau district’s 60th anniversary celebration today. Bau, situated 47km from Kuching, is a former gold mining town.

Bau is now a major tourist town. Its attractions are the two major limestone Fairy and Wind caves, and picnic spots along the upper reaches of the Sarawak river.

The celebration, in conjunction with the town’s annual “jong” (miniature sail boat) regatta, was to mark Bau’s 60th year as a district.

State PH chief Chong Chieng Jen yesterday voiced fears that former prime minister Dr Mahathir, who is now the opposition coalition’s chairman, DAP veteran Lim and Federal Territory Amanah chairman Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli could be barred from entering Sarawak for the ceramah.

He had appealed to the state government not to abuse its immigration powers, adding that there was no reason for the state to ban opposition leaders from entering.

PH leaders are in Sabah and Sarawak over the weekend to convince voters to dump Barisan Nasional in the next general election.

Both Borneo states have been BN’s fixed deposit in previous polls.

Yesterday, PH president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was in Sabah, where she promised to give Sabah and Sarawak a deputy prime minister’s post in the federal government and a bigger share of revenues if the coalition captured Putrajaya in the 14th general election.

Under its six-point manifesto, PH will create a second deputy prime minister’s post to represent the two states.

Abang Johari, since he took office in January, has shown leniency when it comes to allowing opposition leaders into Sarawak.

Last month, he allowed PKR’s top two women leaders, Nurul Izzah Anwar and Zuraida Kamaruddin, who were on the Immigration blacklist, into the state to attend the party’s “open house” in Petra Jaya.

PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah was barred from entering Sarawak as recently as December 2015, while Zuraida, the PKR women’s wing chief, was barred entry on January 30 last year.

Sarawak has autonomy over immigration under the Malaysia Agreement 1963, and Abang Johari’s predecessor, Adenan Satem, had frequently used it to bar people he deemed to be “religious bigots, racists and troublemakers” from entering the state.

Though the state government never disclosed the names of those on the blacklist, it is believed that there are “over 200” names on it, including politicians like PKR MPs Tian Chua and Rafizi Ramli, former MP and PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Subang MP R. Sivarasa, and social and political activists, like former Bersih 2.0 chairman S. Ambiga, Steven Ng, Cynthia Gabriel, Wong Chin Huat and Johan Tan. – September 23, 2017.