By Nur Ashikin Louis and Chris Bishop
KUCHING, Feb 20: A large portion of the RM100 million allocation to Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) this year would be used to repair mission schools in Sarawak.
Speaking to reporters today, Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said most of the fund would be utilised to repair houses of worship.
However, he stressed that the majority of spending would be for repairing schools, including mission schools and Chinese schools.
“The schools include St Thomas (in Kuching) and rural schools which needed repair assistance such as Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) mission schools, Methodist schools, Catholic missionary schools and so on,” he said after officiating at the Malaysia Interfaith Harmony Week Forum 2023 eventheld at a local hotel here today.
When asked if Unifor’s assistance would mean that the missionary schools no longer need to wait for the Education Ministry’s assistance, Abang Johari clarified that they can still continue to wait for federal government aid.
“(They) Can (wait for federal assistance) but it would be slow.
“’Sekolah kerajaan gik sik dapat, dek dek sekolah mubaligh’ (Government schools have yet to get the assistance, what more mission schools).
“So we (Unifor) help them including Chung Hua primary schools,” he added.
Amongst those present were Deputy Sarawak Premier and Minister-in-charge of Unifor Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas; Malaysian Minister of National Unity Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang; Sarawak Minister of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom; Sarawak Minister in the Premier’s Department Datuk John Sikie Tayai; Deputy Minister of Transport Datuk Dr Jerip Susil; and Unifor director Datu Jack Aman Luat. — DayakDaily
