Kah Kiat says state never made offer over Mazu statue
The Malaysian Insider
Former Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat, who is suing the state government over the controversially aborted construction of the Goddess of the Sea, or Mazu, statue in Kudat, has denied a federal minister’s claims that a RM2 million out-of-court settlement had been offered to him.
“I wish to categorically state that if that was what Datuk Seri Nazri said then Datuk Seri Nazri must have got such information from a compulsive liar.
“Neither the chief minister nor the state government of Sabah ever offered me or my Mazu foundation any alternative site or any offer of compensation to this date,” Chong said in a statement today.
He was referring to comments by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Nazri Aziz’s recent comments that an out-of-court offer had been made by the current Sabah CM Datuk Seri Musa Aman.
Nazri was reported to have also said the state government had offered a settlement with three alternative sites proposed and compensation of RM2 million for foundation work which had been done” and that “Chong had declined the offer.”
The Mazu issue was turned into a court battle after Chong filed a suit against Musa and three others over the state government’s decision to rescind the approval given to build the statue.
In his originating motion filed on Dec 12 last year, Chong is seeking a court order to revoke the withdrawal of the letter of approval issued by the Kudat Town Board on Nov 15, 2007.
He is also seeking a declaration that the letter of approval issued by the Kudat Town Board on Feb 8, 2006, is valid and binding on all the parties.
In his statement today, Chong also took exception to a separate remark by Nazri that the state government “cannot go on with the approved plan to build the statue at the original site because it is in front of a mosque.”
Nazri was also reported to have said “that the state government had received a petition signed by 10,000 Muslims living in Kudat objecting to the building of the statue in front of the mosque”.
In response, Chong said today that the Mazu statue was not in front of a mosque.
“The nearest mosque is more than 700 metres away from my statue site.
“Let me also say that it is an insult to all my Muslim brothers and sisters living in Kudat to implicate them in the so-called signing of a petition objecting to my Mazu statue.”
Chong added that he believed Muslims in Malaysia would never interfere or cause injustice to the religious affairs or activities of non-Muslims.
“I know my Muslim brothers and sisters in Kudat because I have had the privilege to serve them as their state assemblyman for two consecutive terms, and I was born and grew up in Kudat.
“And the most shocking utterance reported in the NST to be said by Datuk Seri Nazri was that my Mazu statue is supposed to be 200m high,” he said.
Chong said the approved Mazu statue was not even 200ft tall.
He said that it was an 88ft tall statue supported by a 20ft tall platform, making it just 108ft tall.
