KUCHING, August 5: The Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) is the pride of Sarawak because no other state in the country has such a special body to look after all religions, besides Islam.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said Unifor was given RM20 million this year, which is RM5 million more than last year’s allocation.
“This is only happening in Sarawak as other states do not have such a commitment. It is the commitment of the state government to ensure that religious houses of worship of various faiths are taken care of by the provision of funds to build, repair, upgrade and undertake maintenance.
“Every faith deserves to have decent and safe places of worship. That’s the stand of the government now, and the state will continue to provide annual grants for such a purpose,” he said at the 170th anniversary of St. Mary’s schools’ celebration last night.
His text-of-speech was read out by Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Datuk Seri Michael Manyin Jawong.
As Sarawak treads into the future, Abang Johari said it needed to safeguard its religious and racial harmony as they were the pillars of stability and socio-economic strength for the state.
“Sarawak has been the envy of many states in Malaysia for its strong record in promoting racial and religious harmony,” he said.
On schools, he said they had a big role to play in moulding the character of students, their likes and dislikes, their habits, behaviours, perspectives, respect for each other, tolerance, and acceptance of cultural differences. — DayakDaily
