I would like to share my thoughts referring to the news report of ‘Harapan, Bersatu send memo to protest Trump’s ‘Muslim Ban’‘ published by Malaysiakini on Feb 3, 2017. From the report I got to know that a number of prominent opposition and NGO leaders participated in the protest.

I certainly disagree with the view of the protesters who claimed that Donald Trump’s new immigration ban was “blanket discrimination, inhumane and a breach of human rights”.

First of all, the immigration ban involves only seven mainly Muslim countries by the United States of America and not all Muslim countries including Malaysia. The ban is for a stipulated period of time of only 90 to 120 days and will be reviewed in the future.

Let’s ponder on how the immigration ban on seven countries by the United States of America originated. It was a first mooted by then presidential candidate Donald Trump during campaigning and he won. He signed it into an executive order within the first week of his presidency to fulfill his election promise.

Thus it can be said that the proposal has the support of almost half the population of the USA or else Donald Trump would not have won the presidential race. It is also within the rights of a sovereign nation of the USA to impose any immigration policy within their borders even though the policy may not be favourable to other countries or even breaking with established international immigration norms.

Is USA the only country with immigration ban on certain groups of people? Certainly not. Our own country Malaysia has an immigration ban on Israeli citizens.

Our implementation of this immigration ban on Israeli citizens visiting Malaysia was so strict that Israeli athletes wanting to participate in the Youth Sailing World Championships and World Table Tennis Championships held in Malaysia in 2015 and last year were denied visas to enter Malaysia. The Israeli athletes in the sailing event were the defending champions and effectively denied a chance to retain their championship.

Wouldn’t it be hypocritical for our leaders to criticise Donald Trump when we ourselves have similar immigration laws barring the Israelis from Malaysia in place for decades ?

Perhaps that explains the silence on the part of our prime minister and other government leaders when asked to comment on Donald Trump’s new immigration ban. Perhaps, just perhaps, the opposition might abolish Malaysia’s immigration ban on Israeli citizens if elected as government.