Sabah mulls giving pastors, priests salaries

The deputy chief minister says the proposal came after the state government's move to give salaries to imams.

Deputy Chief Minister Wilfred Madius Tangau (in white shirt) shaking hands with Sabah Council of Churches president Melter Jiki Tais after the meeting with church leaders.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government plans to give pastors and priests remuneration for their work, as part of a new policy to help all religious communities in the state.

Deputy Chief Minister Wilfred Madius Tangau said the move followed a separate announcement by Chief Minister Shafie Apdal to give salaries to imams.

“Shafie mentioned about remuneration for imams and we are suggesting that Christian pastors and priests are also given the same,” Tangau said after meeting church leaders yesterday.

On the special allocation of about RM30 million which the previous government had been giving to non-Muslim bodies annually, Tangau said he had not discussed the matter as he was concentrating only on the salaries and other pressing needs.

Through the discussion, he said he found out that the manner in which government assistance was channelled to the churches could be further improved.

“We are reviewing other ways of distributing aid. Maybe instead of going through a certain department, we could do it in other more effective ways,” he said.

At this meeting, Tangau said the problem of Christians wrongly classified as “Muslims” by the National Registration Department (NRD), and tax on churches, were also discussed.

“For example, church speakers are being classified as artists and subjected to withholding tax. However, these are mostly federal matters,” he said.

Tangau promised the state government would revisit outstanding religious issues affecting Sabah and would seek to resolve them as soon as possible.

It is believed that the issues include the use of the term “Allah” by non-Muslims to refer to God in their prayers and worship. -FMT