KUALA LUMPUR: The ban on Australian Senator Nick Xenophon from entering Malaysia is the “best move to maintain stability and harmony in Malaysia as he is a threat to this,” Malaysia's official governmental news site Bernama reported on Tuesday. Xenophon was deported from the Southeast Asian country over the weekend after he allegedly participated in a pro-democracy demonstration last year. International Movement for a Just World (JUST) president Chandra Muzaffar said Malaysia did not need a bias observer like Xenophon whose aim was to ridicule Malaysia's general election process. “Those who really want to ensure a fair and free general election must cooperate with the Election Commission to strengthen the election process through the Parliamentary Select Committee formed,” he said. The incident has highlighted the growing tension between the two countries ahead of a general election in Malaysia scheduled to take place within the next few months. Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she was “surprised and disappointed" by the deportation. Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak has faced growing pressure from activists, who are calling for change to the country's electoral system. His party, Barisan Nasional, has been the ruling party since Malaysia became independent in 1957, but this year's election is expected to be the closest in the country's history as the opposition continues to gain support. Street protests last year led by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim have urged voter rolls to be cleaned up and allow wider absentee ballots as well as a campaigning period of more than three weeks in order to give the opposition adequate time to deliver their message to voters. “What they've done ironically is illustrate to the world how scared they are, and to bring attention to electoral issues as opposed to being seen as working to address them," Bridget Welsh, a political science associate professor at Singapore Management University, told Bloomberg news agency via telephone. “The electoral process is very important because the race has the potential to be very close." BN
