Always uphold spirit of unity amidst diversity, Sarawakians told

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Lee (seated, centre) and Ting, on his left, join the church pastors and elders, as well as local community leaders in a group photo at the event.

MIRI (May 28): Sarawakians must remain united and work together with the state government to ensure that all multi-racial and multi-religious communities in the state would continue to live in peace and harmony, said Minister of Transport Sarawak Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin.

He said on the part of the Sarawak government, under the ruling coalition of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), it will continue to uphold racial and religious freedom in the state through the Unit for Other Religion (Unifor).

“The setting up of Unifor in 2017 proved that the state government was committed to looking after the welfare of other religions in the state, apart from Islam.

“For this year alone, the state government has set aside a special allocation amounting RM100 million for Unifor to facilitate the construction or extension works on churches, temples and other places of worship, as well as to assist mission schools throughout Sarawak,” he said when officiating at Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) Airport Road’s fundraising food sale here yesterday.

Lee, who is Senadin assemblyman, said the churches in Sarawak, including BEM Airport Road, had benefitted from Unifor.

“This church is under my constituency, and I have seen many changes to this building, which started out small many years ago.

“I believe that with the grants from Unifor, the church has been able to expand into a much bigger building,” he said.

Lee also expressed hope that regardless of Sarawak being home to multi-religious and multi-racial communities, the people would continue to honour mutual respect with one another.

“In Taman Tunku, there is a Hindu temple on one side of the road, and a Chinese temple on the other. Both temples are very respectful and understanding of each other. When the other temple has a function, they can use the carpark at the other place, and vice versa.

“Likewise in Lutong, the Good Shepherd Church and Masjid An-Naim are sharing carparks because they are standing side by side.

“We can only see this in Sarawak.”

Later, Lee announced an allocation of RM20,000 from his Minor Rural Project (MRP) grant to BEM Airport Road.

Also present yesterday was Deputy Minister I for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts 1 Datuk Sebastian Ting.