Hong Kong student leader accuses Malaysia of denying him entry

A student leader of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong said Malaysia denied him entry, preventing him from speaking at a forum about China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.
Joshua Wong – co-founder of the student activist group Scholarism – said in a Facebook posting yesterday that the immigration officials wouldn’t let him through an airport checkpoint after he arrived in the northwestern state of Penang. He returned to Hong Kong and wouldn’t participate in the forum or several similar events planned throughout Malaysia.
“Why can’t I get through the border?” Wong wrote. “The Malaysian immigration officer says: government order.”
Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Wong helped lead demonstrations that blocked key Hong Kong business districts for more than two months last autumn to protest China’s proposal to vet candidates for the city’s first leadership election. The Occupy Central movement, which ended in December, represented the biggest challenge to China’s rule since the British returned control of the former colony in 1997.
While Zahid told the local news portal Malaysiakini he has no knowledge of Wong’s case, he said national security concerns were the most common reason for denying foreign citizens from entering the country.
Wong was due to speak on the role of young people in civil movements at several events starting with the one in Penang. Yesterday’s forum would proceed as scheduled, said Ch’ng Hui Yang, a spokesman for SUARAM, the human rights group that organized the event. Pooi Koon Chong and Niluksi Koswanage, Bloomberg