KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — Malaysia’s deportation of Joshua Wong, the face of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution, will tarnish the country’s democratic credentials, said the Progressive University of Malaya today.
The student body’s secretary-general Vince Tan said the move would portray Malaysia as looking to “curry favour” with China at the expense of its own reputation.
“We find it incomprehensible as his presence in Malaysia can be perceived as a threat to national security and was deported by the Immigration Department.
“Being a country with a history of hostility towards Leftist movement and Leftist ideas, we would find it hypocritical if such perception is found to be true and the motive behind it is to safeguard our trade and commerce interest with China,” the PMUM said in a statement.
Wong was detained yesterday by immigration officers and subsequently deported shortly after landing at the Penang International Airport.
He later claimed during a Skype conference call at a forum last night that the Malaysian authorities were “extreme” for deporting him when he had no intention of speaking out against Malaysia’s ruling administration.
Today, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said Wong was expelled upon arrival as he was considered an “undesirable” presence.
Wong, 18, is widely-regarded as the impetus behind the 2014 mass protests in Hong Kong to demand for the right to elect the special administrative region’s leaders and was named among TIME Magazine’s “Most Influential Teens of 2014”.
