KOTA KINABALU: Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup yesterday returned about 500 Christian books and 300 Compact Discs (CDs) seized from missionary worker Maklin Masiau at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport Two recently.
Kurup said discussion was underway with the relevant authorities to come up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure that such incident would not recur in the future.
He explained that the Customs Department was carrying out their routine inspection required by law considering the large number of books brought in by Maklin.
The consignment was seized from Maklin when he returned from Medan, Indonesia with the Christian materials on Oct 25.
The Customs officials then handed the seized items to the Home Ministry on Oct 27 with a detention letter issued on the same day for checking and investigation. The Home Ministry confirmed that the materials contain the word ‘Allah’.
“After we knew that the books (and CDs) were with the Customs, we assisted to expedite the return (of the Christian materials),” Kurup said in a press conference after handing over the books and CDs to Maklin.
Kurup said his political secretary Vincent Wong also personally carried the consignment back to Kota Kinabalu.
He thanked the Customs Department and officers in the Home Ministry for their proactive efforts to expedite the return of the materials.
Kurup said discussion was underway with the Customs, police, Home Ministry to develop an SOP to prevent misunderstanding when there were consignments of books of such nature in the future, adding that input from churches would also be sought in the discussion process.
He said the SOP would ensure there was no ‘hiccup’ when Christian materials arrived at the airport.
When asked if the Christian materials were detained for containing the word ‘Allah’, Kurup insisted that the Customs were just doing a routine inspect and ‘had nothing to do with Allah’.
Kurup said he was often asked to show the contents in his bag at airports, which he would abide as the Customs were merely doing their job.
Meanwhile, Maklin said he was happy and expressed his gratitude towards the Malaysian government, Home Ministry, Customs Department and Kurup for taking proactive action to resolve the issue.
He said none of the materials were damaged when they were returned.
He said the SOP announced by Kurup was also a positive step forward for churches in Sabah.
Asked if he would purchase Christian materials from Medan in the future, Maklin said the need to purchase the literature was based on demand from churches.
“Buying the books is actually not my job, but if the churches need them, I will go again when the time is right,” he replied.
Maklin added that the returned Christian materials were meant for Protestant Church in Sabah (PCS) in places such as Pitas, Kudat and Kota Marudu, though other churches also sent in their bookings.
Also present was PCS president Jensey Mojuin who represented the Sabah Council of Churches.