MIRI: The Malaysian Evangelical Theological Seminary (METS) today clarified that all 36 students and teachers at METS Buduk Aru in Ba Kelalan, Lawas are not in dire need of food assistance as reported in the news published yesterday.
Reverend Dr Henry Padin
METS rector Reverend Dr Henry Padin said in fact, the theological school located at the Lun Bawang’s highland in Ba Kelalan has sufficient food supply.
“Food supply for our students and teachers at METS Buduk Aru in Ba Kelalan has never been an issue. They have never had insufficient food supply all these years.
“Even if there is, the folk in Ba’ Kelalan and the surrounding areas are always there to offer them food supply, hence there is no such thing as lack of food,” he said when contacted today.
Henry, who is also deputy president of Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) Sarawak, said METS Buduk Aru is under the care of all churches in Ba Kelalan, which has been a tradition for many years since the establishment of the school in 1962.
“It has never become an issue (food supply) because these churches have never failed to offer whatever they have to help the students and teachers.
“We hope that in the future, issues related to churches would not be politicise for whatever reasons,” Henry added.
Henry said he had contacted students at the theological school in Buduk Aru on the matter and was informed that the report of them not having sufficient food was untrue.
In a news published on Monday, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Ba Kelalan chairman Tadan Arun had alleged that the students and teachers of the theological school urgently needed food assistance as their supply had run out due to the restrictions under the Movement Control Order (MCO).
He claimed further that the villagers of Buduk Nur were donating daily necessities comprising rice, cooking oil and some canned foodstuff and if the situation continued the students and teachers would face more hardship.