Outlaw any group trying to ‘destroy’ M’sia — Bumburing
KOTA KINABALU: The government has been urged to ban any group that seeks to dismantle and destroy the very fabric that keeps Malaysia together as a group of nation and ensure that the country maintains its secularism.
Parti Cinta Sabah president Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Bumburing in making the call added that the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that every Malaysian citizen’s right to practise their religion is guaranteed and protected at all times as enshrined in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and the Federal Constitution.
As such any group such as the Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (Centhra) whose CEO had called on the government to outlaw and ban Christian Evangelism in Malaysia must be outrightly ignored and rejected, he stressed.
“For Sabah, in parallel to the MA63 and the Inter-Governmental Report of 1962 is the Batu Sumpah which forms part and parcel of all the other two international legal instruments that became the basis for the formation of Malaysia in 1963,” the Tamparuli assemblyman pointed out in a statement yesterday.
According to him, although it only contained three articles, the three points stated in the Batu Sumpah encompassed every fabric that made up the entire socio-cultural and socio-economic life and activities in Sabah the first of which is clearly stated, ‘Ugama Bebas Di Sabah’. (Freedom of Religion in Sabah).
As such, the call by Centhra for the government to outlaw Christian Evangelism clearly infringed the guarantees, an assurance which is not something that was just carved and crafted into the piece of stone, but instilled into it the meanings, the purpose, the spirit and the nationalism not just for the Sabah interior folks but for every original people of Sabah that propelled Sabahans into accepting to be part of the nation that made up Malaysia, he said.
“I totally subscribe and respect the provision in the constitution that prohibits other religion from proselytizing the Muslims, and I fully honour the position of Islam as the religion of the Federation.
“However, this does not give licence to any group to call for the outlawing of any activities being carried out by other religions organized within the confine of their own religious activities.
“Retrospectively, in the spirit of the Batu Sumpah, I hereby strongly urge the government to instead outlaw and ban any group that seeks to dismantle and destroy the very fabric that keeps Malaysia together as a group of nations and ensure that Malaysia maintains its secularism,” he stressed.