Police deny disrupting Kajang church’s Bahasa service

The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship in Malaysia has acknowledged that the Bethany Church in Kajang is a member church. – Screen grab of NECF website, December 2, 2014.Police today denied that they disrupted the Bahasa Malaysia service at a Kajang church last Sunday, saying they left the premises after being informed of the religious service conducted there.

Kajang police chief Assistant Commissioner Ab Rashid Ab Wahab told The Malaysian Insider they received a complaint of excessive noise and that a loudhailer was being used in the church.

"Policemen went to check. No church service was stopped,” said Ab Rashid.

“Police was just there to check what it was all about and after being informed that a church service was being conducted, the officers left."

He said the complainant was an occupant of an apartment unit above the shoplot where the church is located.

“We contacted the complainant after that and told him to lodge a police report if he was still unhappy. However, the complainant refused to do so."

Ab Rashid added that although it was illegal to turn a shoplot into a church, police could not take any action as it was not under their jurisdiction.

“The only authority who can take action against the church, with regards to the use of the premises, is the local council, not the police,” he said.

The incident occurred at the Bethany Church located in a largely commercial area near the Perhentian Kajang bus station.

It occupies the second floor of a shoplot and rents it from a Malaysian Chinese owner, who has full knowledge that the premises is being used as a church.

A spokesman for the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) was reported as saying that the Bethany Church in Kajang is a member of the NECF, and that it conducts services in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia as most of its 200 congregants are Indonesia.

NECF had also been alerted to the intrusion at 11.20am on Sunday and advised the church leaders to lodge a police report.

The Bethany Church's Indonesian pastor, Nelson Sembiling, told The Malaysian Insider that two police officers came on Sunday about 10 minutes into his sermon during the service.

They did not enter the church but called a few of the members outside and told them to bring out the church's leader.

Nelson said the officers insisted that he stop the service failing which they would call "their inspector".

They did, and then told the pastor that the church service could continue for that day but added they would return.

- TMI