DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang today lodged a protest with United States Charge d'Affaires Robert A Pollard over the US decision to more closely scrutinise visiting aliens who have made previous trips to Malaysia.

Lim said he voiced his concern over the inclusion of Malaysia in a list of 15 countries subject to more stringent inspection by US immigration authorities from Oct 1.

"We (DAP) protested that the move is unacceptable as Malaysians are well known to be a peaceful and peace-loving people," said Lim when contacted today.

Lim said he had also arranged the meeting to enquire how Malaysia can be removed from the list.

"Pollard said he was unable to provide us with an explanation as the decision was made by his government in Washington. He said he would convey to his government the views put forward by the DAP delegation," he added.

The US embassy press office declined to comment on the meeting between Lim and Pollard.

A malaysiakini report Wednesday said US immigration inspectors will subject travellers who have been to Malaysia but are not able to give credible reasons for their visits, to "special registration measures" from Oct 1.

US embassy officials in Kuala Lumpur declined to say what the 'special measures' are but the move is widely believed to be linked to intelligence reports that two of the Sept 11 hijackers had met in Malaysia in January 2000.

Islamic state declaration

Lim had also questioned in an earlier press statement if the US and Canada which imposed visa requirement for Malaysians beginning Sept 24 were tightening immigration policies for Malaysians because of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Islamic state declaration last year.

"The Malaysian government should explain whether this is in any way related to the 929 declaration by Mahathir and the escalating Umno-PAS competition to out-Islam each other," he stressed.

Lim also called upon Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to respond to the recent events that could adversely affect Malaysia's reputation for foreign investment and tourism.

"The government has maintained a strange silence on the US blacklisting Malaysia," he said.

Lim said the US move is likely to bring about adverse repercussions on Malaysia as it effectively 'branded' Malaysia internationally as a 'terrorist' state while the Canadian policy had been carried out against the "spirit of the Commonwealth".

"This is particularly unfortunate and unacceptable as only last week, Abdullah had specifically told US Vice-President Dick Cheney that Malaysia does not like to be branded as a terrorist state or as having any links with terrorists," he added.

On Tuesday, the Canadian government lifted the visa exemption for Malaysian citizens citing "security concerns" over Malaysian passport and passport issuing system.

However, spokespersons for Ottawa had not provided any instances whereby Malaysian passports had been used in fraudulent attempts to enter the country.