KUCHING, Feb 7. — Any individual seen as a threat to Sarawak’s racial and religious harmony will be barred from entering the state, regardless of their political affiliations, state tourism minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Openg said.

He said the Sarawak government has drawn up a “lengthy” list of individuals from the peninsula who are banned from entering the east Malaysian state for a variety of reasons.

“We don’t want these kinds of people to come to incite racial and religious hatred in Sarawak,” he said at the Journalists Association of Kuching Division (KDJA) media appreciation dinner here last night.

“We have a lengthy list of these people barred from entering the state,” he said, without giving names.

Among the latest to be banned from Sarawak are controversial Muslim convert Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, Hindu Rights Act Force leader P. Waytha Moorthy and opposition lawmakers Teresa Kok, Rafizi Ramli, Chua Tian Chang, Zuraida Kamaruddin, Bersih 2.0 former co-chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali.

Malaysian Muslim Solidarity (ISMA) president Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman is also believed to be on the list of those banned from entering Sarawak.

Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem issued a directive last year to the Immigration Department to stop those seen as political extremists, religious bigots and racists from Peninsular Malaysia from entering Sarawak

Abang Johari said Sarawak could do without these political extremists, religious bigots and racists travelling to the state as tourists.

“They will cause racial and religious disharmony in the state with their inflammatory speeches and extreme acts.

“We have been living in peace all this while and we do not want the situation in Peninsular Malaysia to spread here,” he said, adding that Sarawak is merely exercising its constitutional right.

He added that such rights should not be questioned, pointing out that due to the state’s success in prohibiting the entry of troublemakers into Sarawak, “we have had peace… and when we have peace, more tourists will come to Sarawak.”

“Last year, we registered a 4.5 million tourist arrivals, an increase of 11 per cent,” he said, adding that he expects the number of arrivals to improve this year.