CHRISTIAN NOT MUSLIM: Sabah group cheers Cabinet intervention but will there be follow-through

KOTA KINABALU - The NECF Commission on Sabah Affairs (COSA) welcome the Cabinet’s decision to resolve with urgency the long standing dilemma of Bumiputra Christians in Sabah wrongly classified as Muslims in their MyKad.

“This is a step in the right direction to avoid further confusion over the status of Bumiputra Christians in Sabah,” said Datuk Jerry Dusing, chairman of the National Evangelical Christian fellowship Commission on Sabah Affairs in a statement today.

The statement also said the assurance by the State National Registration Department that the error in recording the religious status in MyKad can be resolved immediately is a positive move. COSA hopes with this, the injustice and the huge back log of unresolved MyKad cases can be cleared quickly without having to go through the Syariah Court.

Christians and not Muslims

COSA will immediately seek the intervention of both the Cabinet and the state NRD to remove the long protracted dispute from the Kudat Syariah High Court where it will have to determine whether three baptised Christians who have been Christians since birth and have never been Muslims are indeed Christians and not Muslims. After a series of postponements, the case is scheduled to be heard five days before Christmas.

The statement said COSA urge the authorities to act with utmost urgency to amend the error in the entry in their MyKad as Christians and not Muslims so that the Syariah Court is not forced to make any judgment or order which may further complicate the problem.

COSA said the controversy came to light when a test case was mounted by a 53 year-old widow of Banggi ethnicity, Intim binti Lambatan, and her two adult daughters, Norina binti Nuhudan,28, and Listin Nuhudan, 22, after they were classified as Muslims in their MyKad when all three are baptised Christians belonging to the Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) denomination.

NRD refused to rectify error despite clarification

The statement said the Jabatan Hal Ehwal Agama Islam Negeri Sabah – JHEAINS - or the Sabah Islamic Affairs Department, had clarified their names are not on the department’s register, thus indicating they are not Muslim converts.

But the NRD would not rectify its error and asked Intim to go the Kudat Syariah High Court for a declaration that she is not a Muslim. After several delays, the case came up for hearing on 29 Oct 2012 but both JHEAINS and the NRD did not turn up, forcing another postponement.

COSA cited press reports that the United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said the matter has been resolved at the Federal Cabinet level. He said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has given the NRD the go-ahead (to rectify the errors) instead of having to go through the Syariah Court.

'Technical glitches'

Dompok, who is also the Plantation industries and Commodities Minister, said the Cabinet had also decided to appoint him as the “focal point” in Sabah while Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Unggah Embas was directed to monitor Sarawak. Dompok said that he will render the necessary assistance.

Meanwhile, COSA added that the Sabah state director of NRD Ismail bin Ahmad said the errors were caused by “technical glitches.” He assured those facing such problems that all they need to do is to go to his office and point out the error and it would be rectified.

Issued on behalf of National Evangelical Christian Fellowship Commission on Sabah Affairs