DAP calls for all-party conference to address the four  bad news for the country in the last ten days  of September with the worsening of US branding  of Malaysia from “terrorist-risk” state to “terrorist suspect” state

(Petaling Jaya, Monday): Malaysiakini today reported that the United States embassy in Kuala Lumpur has announced new entry and exit regulations which will require some Malaysians to be specially registered, fingerprinted and photographed on entering the US.

The US embassy said the country’s National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) will be expanded from Oct 1 to include registration of “some Malaysians” as well as “some individuals from every country”, based on “information about the current threat of terrorism”.

Last Friday, when DAP leaders met  the United States  Charge d’affaires Robert A. Pollard  at the United States Embassy in Kuala Lumpur to protest at  the US Immigration blacklisting of Malaysia as one of the 15 “terrorist-risk” countries from October 1, Robert Pollard promised to convey the DAP’s views to the Bush Administration but he did intimate that “things would get worse” and that the US Embassy would be “even more unpopular” with several new measures in the pipeline to deal with the terrorist threat in the United States, although he did not spell out these measures at the time.

It is now clear that the US Embassy announcement today is one of the measures hinted by Robert Pollard which would make the US Administration “even more unpopular”.

With the worsening of US branding  of Malaysia from “terrorist-risk” state to “terrorist suspect” state even before the new US Immigration measures come into force tomorrow, DAP calls on the Malaysian government to  take a very  serious view of the four  bad news for the country in the last ten days  of September, viz:

• Malaysia’s displacement from the list of top 25 destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) from the previous 22^nd position in the latest US-based FDI Confidence Index September 2002, attributing as reasons the “uncertainty about Malaysia’s leadership transition, fears of terrorism and the complex relationship between politics and business”;
• United States Administration blacklisting of Malaysia  as one of the 15 “terrorist-risk” states from October 1;
• Canada’s imposition of visa requirement for Malaysian visitors from last Tuesday  without notice; and 
• Today’s announcement that the US Government has included Malaysia in another select “blacklist” where Malaysians would be subject to special screening, involving  being finger-printed, photographed and tracked in the United States like a common criminal – graduating from “terrorist-risk” to “terrorist-suspect” state, although not yet “terrorist-sponsoring” status in the case of nine particular countries!  

Yesterday,  on his return from the Asia-Europe meeting (Asem) in Copenhagen, . Mahathir was contemptuous  of Canada’s move to impose visas on Malaysians, dismissing questions  that Malaysia should try to reverse Canada’s decision by saying that “I don’t think we should do anything. That is their (Canada’s) business”.

The spate of adverse news for Malaysia in the last 10 days of September which are all related to Malaysia’s image as a “terrorist state” are  highly detrimental to Malaysia’s economic prospects, whether in terms of Malaysia as a centre for tourism or foreign investments, and must be regarded as a grave  national problem.

DAP calls on the Cabinet on Wednesday to convene an all-party meeting to address the spate of four international reverses suffered by Malaysia in the last 10 days of September, and to work out a national and international strategy to win back international confidence that Malaysia is not a “terrorist-risk”, “terrorist-suspect” or “terrorist-sponsoring” state before more bad news descend on Malaysians in October.

(30/9/2002)