Sarawak churches slam ‘blunt violation’

Barisan Nasional may have burnt its bridges with the Christian community in Sarawak with its latest round of Bible seizure.

KUCHING: Described as a “blunt violation” and “unconstitutional curtailment” of religious right, the government’s recent seizure of 30,000 copies of the Malay version of the bible could well be the final straw for the more than one million frsutrated Christians in Sarawak.

Churches throughout the state have accused the Home Ministry of unnecessarily creating tensions among the Christians, saying that it was not the first time that they were squeezed.

Sarawak Ministers Fellowship chairman Daron Tan, while fully backing the Christian Federation of Malaysia’s stand on the seizure, decried the “repeated restrictions” and said that the government must be “more accountable” in respect to religious beliefs of others.

“We view the detentions of the latest batch of 30,000 copies of ‘Perjanian Baru, Mazmur dan Amsal’ (New testament, Psalms and Proverbs) at the Kuching Port by the ministry as another blunt violation and unconstitutional curtailment of the religious liberty of Christians in our nation and the state of Sarawak.

“The bible detentions are not the only difficulties which our churches face in resolving key religious liberty issues with government authorities.

“We have repeatedly encountered restrictions that ran contrary to the guarantee of religious freedom provided in the federal constitution,” he said.

The Home Ministry’s move to detain the bible was linked to the use of the term “Allah” in the Malay version of the holy books.

More than 40% of Sarawak’s 2.4 million population are Christians. Majority of them are Malay-speaking.

Constitutional right

Speaking to reporters here yesterday, Tan said a similar seize was carried out just before Christmas last year and the ministry detained 10,000 copies of the Bibles at the Kuching Port.

“The ministry officials should be more accountable and be reasonable. They must respect the religious beliefs of other people,” he said.

Also present at the press conference were SMF representatives comprising Kuching Ministers Fellowship, Miri Pastors Fellowship, Bintulu Pastors Fellowship, and the Gempuru Besai Raban Jako Iban Malaysia (all alliance of Iban churches).

Tan quoted Article 8 of the Federal Constitution which stated that “all persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law, and there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the ground only of religion, race, descent, and place of birth or gender in any law.”

He added that Article 11 of the constitution also provided for every person to have “the right to profess and practice his religion” and that every religious group has the right to (a) manage its own religious affairs, and (b) to establish and maintain instuitions for religious or charitable purposes, and (c) to acquire and own property and hold and administer it in accordance with the law.

“Furthermore, under the 18-point agreement for Sarawak in the formation of Malaysia, it is clearly stated that there is no official religion for Sarawak.

“Therefore the detention of the bibles at the Kuching Port is not only unconstitutional, but also violates the spirit of the agreement for Sarawak to participate in the formation of Malaysia.

“We are deeply disappointed and want to register our strong protest on how these continuous problems have impeded our Christian rights to practise our faith,” he said, calling on the government to uphold the rights of the Christian community as enshrined in the constitution.

He added that “churches in Sarawak have been very accommodating and tolerant” in the past.

“We (now) feel that the time has come for us to come forward to express our unhappiness and disappointment. We are not rejecting the government and at the same time we call on the government to uphold our rights.

“Freedom of religion is the first point in the 18-point agreement,” he said. -FMT