Assuming that reports are correct, it appears that a citizen was denied approval to travel by the immigration authorities on the ground that his reason for travel was to visit his male partner overseas.

While Malaysia, behind the times in this, still criminalises homosexual conduct its writ only runs, as with all countries, over what happens inside its borders and has no effect or validity outside them.

The right to travel is a basic one for all Malaysians, not just PN ministers, and can only be restricted on the basis of legal prohibitions. It is time that the immigration authorities learned that fact and stopped using religious prejudice to justify illegal actions.