Dato Sebastian on religious tolerance

suppadmin | September 3, 2016

State Assemblyman for Paisau, Dato’ Sebastian Ting expressed regret and grave concern that a student has been reprimanded for wearing a cross, the symbol of Christianity, in a Serian school by the Principal.

Ting who is also the Secretary General of Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP), said the Principal who is from Penisulu Malaya, should or must be able to recognise the uniqueness of Sarawak, amongst others, the total acceptance of freedom of religion as enshrined in our Federation Constitution and the Constitution of Sarawak.

“In Sarawak, we are different. We can live together in peace and harmony simply because of respect for each others’ culture, religion and race. We practise total acceptance of each other. More ever, there are over 40 percent of Christians here. The Christian is a religion that preaches goodness, respect and acceptance like others. The Principal should realize that he came to Sarawak to teach and not to stop individual from practicing the religion they want. Under our Constitution, we have the freedom of religion,” he said.

Ting said every religion is between the individual and his God and that is why in Sarawak, we are unique as there is a lot of respect for one another. Unnecessary interference of religious practice by young Students is very negative and therefore must not be allowed. It will disturb the religious harmony we have here, he added.

People are asking ” Why must the Principal do that.?

We sincerely hope that this issue will not surface again in future. For this case, most Sarawakians expect that it is only proper for this Principal to be transferred out of Sarawak.