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By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, July 24: Federation of Chinese Associations of Sarawak president Dato Richard Wee has been appointed as the first chairman of the just established Federation of Sarawak Temple Associations (FSTA).
FSTA which is an umbrella body representing temples in Sarawak held its first Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Kuching Hokkien Association Meeting Hall at Green Hill Road yesterday. It currently has a membership of approximately 80 temples.
“There are several hundreds of temples across Sarawak. It has been tedious for Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) to contact each one of them.
“That is why it has been decided to form an NGO, an umbrella temple association which caters for all temples registered with Registrar of Societies (ROS).
“FSTA will provide a secretariat to disseminate information for Unifor as well as be the point of contact to help temples submitting their applications. This is done also with the hope for fair and systematic distribution of financial assistance for temples in Sarawak,“ Wee told DayakDaily when contacted.
As chairman, it is also his vision to assist more temple committees to submit official registration applications for approval from ROS so that these temples may receive or be entitled to aid provided by Unifor.
Wee said the idea was mooted as early as 2020 but all efforts came to a halt due to Covid-19.
With life now back to normalcy, efforts to form the NGO resumed and an application was submitted to ROS which approved it recently.
“We called for the first AGM yesterday and the NGO was officially established,” said Wee. — DayakDaily
