After he was refused a visa to visit Australia last month, Malaysian rights activist Haris Ibrahim is coming to ANU next week.

Malaysian democracy activist Haris Ibrahim will speak at ANU next week, after a planned seminar last month was cancelled because the Australian government refused to issue him with a visa.

Now that he has been granted a visitor’s visa to enter Australia, Haris will give his lecture, Opposing authoritarianism in Malaysia, at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

He originally applied for the visa on 5 September, so he could attend “to a personal matter” in Sydney on 25 September, and was later convinced to also give public talks.

But the visa was refused because the Australian government feared sedition charges he faced in his home country for campaigning against the Malaysian government would tempt him to remain in Australia.

The Australian government also argued Haris’ lack of employment in Malaysia, given he had stopped practicing as a lawyer, was another incentive for him not to return.

After meeting with Australian High Commission officers in Kuala Lumpur and reapplying for the visa, which was supported by two letters from friends in Malaysia, Haris posted a note on his weblog last week confirming he had now been given the green light to come to Australia.

Along with the decision, Haris has agreed to deliver his previously cancelled ANU talk, which will reflect on his long experience in organising political reform and rights movements in Malaysia.

He will also comment on future struggles he expects, in his fight against authoritarianism in Malaysia.

The Malaysian government, which is made up of ethnicity-based political parties representing Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sabahan and Sarawakian indigenous interests, won another term after the 5 May 2013 general election results.

Among the ruling parties, UMNO (the United Malays National Organisation) did best.

Haris, one of its most vocal opponents, is the founder of the political movement Asalkan Bukan UMNO (Anything but UMNO).

His talk next Monday is hosted by the Department of Political and Social Change in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

To listen to Haris being interviewed on ABC radio, click here.
 

WHAT: Opposing authoritarianism in Malaysia

WHEN: 3-4pm, Monday 28 October

WHERE: Lecture Theatre 1, Hedley Bull Centre (Building 130), Corner of Garran Road and Liversidge Street, Australian National University.