As polls loom, Sarawak wants BM bibles freed

The CFM said Najib (right) may be unaware that the bibles were still being kept by the home ministry. — file pic

MIRI, March 13 — Sarawak wants the Home Ministry to release all impounded or seized Malay-language bibles immediately as opposition parties scramble to use it as fodder for the state election that is likely to be held next month.

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said the state government could not understand the rationale behind such treatment of the Bible or why the Bahasa Malaysia version could not be imported into the country.

“The state government is also willing to print the bibles in Bahasa Malaysia if the ones from Indonesia are not acceptable,” he told reporters here yesterday on the impounding of 30,000 Bibles in Port Klang and Kuching Port.

Chan said the matter has never been a problem in Sarawak and he could not understand why those responsible “were being so difficult and causing unnecessary controversies and ill-feelings among Malaysians”.

The bible row is likely to cost Sarawak BN votes if not resolved.

“In Sarawak, we have never faced such controversies before. In this state, we have mosques and churches built side-by-side. In our coffee shops, we have Chinese and Malay food sellers operating next to each other. We don’t have any problem with race or religion.”

The Home Ministry has said the bibles were not allowed because they did not meet its terms and conditions. The bibles were printed in Indonesia.

Yesterday, Chan said state government leaders would discuss the matter at the next state Cabinet meeting and also bring up the issue to the federal Cabinet and for the attention of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Najib and other Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders are expected to be in Sarawak later this week for several events ahead of a possible announcement of the state legislature dissolution later this month.

Speculation has Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud calling for snap polls in early April. Government sources say the bible controversy will affect BN in the polls.

While BN is in no danger of losing the government, PR is hoping to deny Taib a two-thirds majority victory in his 30th year in power.

“PR will use the bible issue and hopefully can get more than one third of the 71 state seats. We want to show that the 2008 political tsunami can cross the South China Sea into Sarawak,” an opposition leader told The Malaysian Insider.

However, Chan played down the potential political repercussions during the coming state election, saying it was an issue of justice.

Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) president Bishop Ng Moon Hing told The Malaysian Insider that he had spoken personally with Najib a few times about Christian dilemma over the Malay bibles stuck at the ports in Klang and Kuching, including at last year’s Christmas tea party hosted by the Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam.

“After we met the prime minister, the ruling was reversed very quickly,” the bishop said.

The Malaysian Insider understands a consignment of 10,000 Malay bibles locked up in Kuching were released to the importer, a local branch of international Christian group, The Gideons, the same day.

The 5,000 held in Port Klang, however, remained under the home ministry’s lock and key.

Ng said the PM very likely was not given the full picture and was not aware there was another shipment of 5,000 bibles imported by BSM.

“He sounded surprised. If you are the prime minister and were told one side had been released, you’d think that’s the end of the matter. Case closed,” Ng said, in Najib’s defence.

The bishop related that the PM seemed surprised when he was reminded about the Port Klang shipment and promised he would look into it.

But three months have passed since that private conversation on December 25 and the Christian groups have yet to get word from home ministry officials to collect their languishing cargo.

Instead, CFM received another report that a third consignment of Malay bibles, this time for 30,000 copies costing US$26,000 (RM78,000) meant for the Sarawak Christian market, have been carted off from Kuching port to the home ministry’s local office and put under lock.