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Bible seizure violates constitution - The Borneo Post Online Berita Sarawak - News 2 Sarawak

Bible seizure violates constitution - The Borneo Post Online

Posted: 03 Jan 2014 11:22 AM PST

by Lian Cheng, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on January 4, 2014, Saturday

KUCHING: Chairman of Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS) Archbishop Bolly Lapok branded the act of raiding Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) which resulted in two arrests and the seizing of more than 300 copies of Bibles as 'an act of treason'.

"If an action assumes such arrogance that violates the Federal Constitution and pays total disregard to the Prime Minister's directive is not treason, I do not know what is," said ACS in a statement yesterday.

ACS was responding to the Selangor State Islamic Affairs Department (Jais)'s raid of BSM which took place on Jan 2 where two arrests were made and 320 copies of Al-Kitab as well as 10 copies of Bup Kudus (Bible of Iban Langauge) were seized.

Describing the raid as 'shocking', ACS reminded those involved in the 10-point agreement issued by the Federal Cabinet on April 2011 to address Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia Bible and other related issues.

The first two points being – "Bibles in all languages can be imported into the country, including Bahasa Malaysia/ Indonesia" and "These Bibles can also be printed locally in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak".

ACS said the dispute over the use of the word "Allah" had poisoned the nation's inter-religious relation and tearing the fabric of Malaysian plural society.

"In the face of the unrelenting dispute, a voice of reason among us has called for all citizens to respect, honour and abide by the guarantee of religious freedom as enshrined in the Federal Constitution and which was agreed to when Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaya to form Malaysia.

"I would urge that in our handling of such a sensitive issue, it is imperative that we exercise maximum restraint and without undue prejudice. Our action will either convict or commend us before men and God. JAIS has much to answer for its action," said the Archbishop for South East Asia.

Meanwhile, the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) called on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and other Christian lawmakers to act immediately to stop the seizure of Bibles.

In a statement dated yesterday, CCM also called upon the churches in the country to stay calm and pray that the proper authorities would act with wisdom and sensitivity and protect religious rights as provided under the Federal Constitution.

Expressing alarm over the raid at the beginning of 2014, CCM pointed out that the Islamic authorities did not have the authority in law to enter the premises of non-Muslim religious establishments for inspection, search or raid.

"The Federal Constitution guarantees by Article 11 (3) the right of religious communities of Malaysia to establish and maintain institutions and premises to freely profess and administer their affairs," said the statement.

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Chinese primary schools face teacher shortage – BorneoPost <b>...</b>

Posted: 03 Jan 2014 11:20 AM PST

KUCHING: Chinese-medium primary schools in the state will continue to face the challenge of a shortage of teachers this year.

Sarawak United Association of Chinese Primary Aided School Boards of Management chairman Pemanca Liu Thian Leong said currently there are seven headmaster posts vacant at Chinese-medium primary schools.

"There will be 12 (more) headmasters vacancies at the schools here by February. I urge the assistant headmasters to take up training courses to qualify themselves to fill the headmaster posts," he said when inspecting a Chinese primary school here recently.

He said the state's Chinese-medium primary schools still require 16 teachers and hoped the Education Department would hire temporary teachers if trained teachers are not available.

Liu also aired his fear that the department would assign teachers who could not understand Mandarin to the schools.

"It is a problem. Teachers who can't understand Mandarin would affect the school in various aspects such as it is not flexible to arrange the teaching subjects and timetable," he said.

He urged board members to immediately take necessary action if such a problem occurred.

Liu, who is also Federation of Boards of Management of Kuching and Samarahan Divisions Chinese Primary Schools president, said another problem was the low number of students in some remote areas.

He said this could be due to urbanisation as more people move to live in towns or cities.

Liu also denied a rumour that some rural Chinese-medium schools were charging fees of up to RM400, pointing out that fees were usually just over RM30 and less than RM100.

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