Sabah secessionist says she was left with no choice but to obtain UK travel documents after the Malaysian government refused to renew her passport.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah secessionist activist Doris Jones will be returning to Malaysia but with a UK passport.
Based in London, Jones has said that she is definitely planning to make a trip back to Sabah with her new travel documents after her application to renew her Malaysian passport was rejected, according to a report in the Star Online.
“I won’t tell you when, but I will come back. I have family there,’’ Jones said when contacted in London by telephone yesterday.
Jones, whose full name is Doris Yapp Kim Young, posted on her Facebook page on Sunday that she had settled her passport problems in the United Kingdom without any problems.
According to her, she has not given up her Malaysian citizenship by applying for the UK passport, which she was entitled to having been a permanent resident of the United Kingdom for the last 20 years.
“It is not my intention to change my passport from Malaysian passport to United Kingdom international passport, but it is the fault of Malaysian government for rejecting a Sabah citizen from continuing to stay in Malaysia,” she said.
“I have not applied for British citizenship. I only applied for a travel document as Malaysia is refusing to renew my passport.”
Jones, who runs the Sabah Sarawak Keluar Malaysia (SSKM) movement, said that her application to renew her passport at the Malaysian High Commission in London was rejected, though she was offered an emergency one-way travel document to renew her passport in Putrajaya.
“I want to renew my passport in Kota Kinabalu. Why Putrajaya?” she asked.
A court in Tuaran had issued an arrest warrant against Jones in January, ordering her appearance in court to answer a charge under the Sedition Act for allegedly promoting the secession of Sabah and Sarawak from Malaysia.
Malaysian police requested Interpol’s help to trace Jones in February but were reported by The Star as saying later in May that they could not extradite her from London as Britain, which has abolished its sedition laws, did not recognise her “crime”.
Source: Free Malaysia Today
