By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, Dec 21: Unit For Other Religion (Unifor) is fair in distributing its grants to various houses of worship, asserts its chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who is also Sarawak Deputy Premier.
He said Sarawak has so far registered 2,453 non-Islamic houses of worship with a total of 1,771,586 members statewide.
Since 2017, he pointed out, the Sarawak government has approved and allocated RM313.158 million to these houses of worship, and out of that amount, 24.5 per cent or RM81.558 million was allocated to the Roman Catholic Church with over 509 churches or chapels.
“This is followed by the Anglican Church at 21.2 per cent or RM70.519 million and supporting some 300 churches and chapels.
“The Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) Church received RM59.7 million or 17.9 per cent to help 635 churches,” he said during the Unifor Appreciation Night at a hotel here last night (Dec 20).
Uggah further revealed that the Buddhist Group received RM37.06 million to support 152 temples; the Methodist Church received RM27.977 million; and the Seventh Day Adventist Church received RM12.026 million.
“Other houses of worship, including Confucianism, Taoism and Traditional Religion, received a total of RM101.1987 million; the Sikh Temple RM9.860 million and Hindu Temple RM4.260 million,” he said.
He added that Unifor has not only assisted houses of worship but also 127 mission schools in Sarawak from 2021 to 2023, with funds amounting to RM50 million.
Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg, Minister of Education, Innovation and Talent Development Dato Sri Roland Sagah Wee Inn and his Deputy Datuk Dr Annuar Rapiee, Deputy Minister of Transport Datuk Henry Harry Jinep, Deputy Minister in the Premier Department (Corporate Affairs and UKAS) Datuk Saidol Abdullah and Unifor director Jack Aman Luat were among those present. — DayakDaily
