Malaysia Denies Entry to Clare Rewcastle Brown

HONG KONG — Malaysian authorities have denied entry to a leading opposition journalist who is the sister-in-law of Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister.

The journalist, Clare Rewcastle Brown, who was sent back to Singapore, is the founder of the Sarawak Report and Radio Free Sarawak, two news outlets that have taken on the Malaysian government on issues like deforestation and corruption in the state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo.

A native of Sarawak, she has been in increasingly contentious battles with local power brokers and officials in the state since setting up the two news outlets in 2010.

In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Rewcastle Brown said she arrived in Malaysia on Wednesday at Kuching International Airport on an AirAsia flight from Singapore but was denied entry by immigration officials, who detained her and put her on the next flight back to Singapore.

Ms. Rewcastle Brown, a British citizen who operates her news sites from London, said she had last been let into Malaysia in 2011.

Malaysia recently held democratic elections in which its prime minister, Najib Razak, was re-elected. Critics said the government used its strong hand over the country's news media to help ensure that Mr. Najib remained in power.

During the campaign, the Sarawak Report was often inaccessible because of what it said were cyberattacks.

Officials in Sarawak State did not comment on the matter.

Malaysian officials have said Radio Free Sarawak is operating illegally because it does not have a license.

Read the rest: Malaysia Denies Entry to Journalist at New York Times

Also: Gordon Brown's activist sister-in-law Clare Rewcastle Brown denied entry to Malaysian state

The 'Security Risk' Is Sent Home

I was briefly browsing through Facebook when I saw a link on my mate Tim's site: Nick Xenophon Detained In Malaysia

Now the good senator is no stranger to controversy, having been tear-gassed during one of the public demonstrations in Malaysia calling for free and fair elections.

Apparently he hasn't endeared himself to the BN government by meeting with the Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, whom the BN government has attempted to defame with sex videos numerous times -- to no avail.

So he actually got deported!



Bear in mind that immigration was very helpful and even apologetic at having to detain him.

In 2011, I was due to fly abroad when at the boarding security screening, I dropped my mobile phone. Unbeknownst to me, the keypad on my phone had dislodged upon impact.

I merely picked up the phone and shoved it back into my pocket without noticing the absence of said keypad.

When I'd settled myself inside the plane, I took out the phone to turn it off, only to discover that I couldn't, because the keypad was missing.

I quickly ran back out -- much to the chagrin of the flight attendants -- to look for the keypad.

Somewhat panicked, I asked one of the immigration officers if she had seen a keypad lying around. I cannot begin to describe how odd and embarrassing the situation was, and I would not have bothered had I not required my phone to get in touch with the person who was picking me up from the airport abroad.

But the immigration officer, upon hearing my explanation, started looking on the floor for my keypad and even alerted her colleagues. Which was a good thing because one of them had spotted it on the floor and picked it up.

Phone and keypad finally reunited, I dashed back to the plane in almost McGyver-type moves after thanking the helpful officers.

As the aircraft was taking off, I thought of how the immigration officers could have ignored me but chose to help instead.

Because essentially, while immigration comes under the purview of the government and may be seen as the 'enemy', the individuals are actually good people who are only doing their job.

In the case of Senator Xenophon, the orders evidently came from very high. Possibly up to the guy who ludicrously asked a crowd, "Are you ready for Psy?" before being flatly rejected when he attempted the same for "BN".

So what does the deportation of an Australian senator mean to us?

I think we're going to see the toughest battles fought out between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat because the BN government is frightened as anything by threats to themselves.

Supporters Of The Opposition

This is how far politics goes in determining who develops the nation.

It's not about competence.

Not experience.

Not even credibility or reputation as a company or individual contractor.

It's about political affiliation.


And with this village idiot mentality, you wonder why we aren't world famous?

UMNO has the nerve to insist the government blacklist them.