Press Statement by Chin Shu Ying, LDP Youth Leader

By Chin Shu Ying

LDP is not the one that tried to stir up racial and religious sentiments. Instead we are the one trying to protect the racial and religious harmony which every Sabahan is proud of. It is those that stopped the construction of the Mazu without any valid reason and to fulfill their own agenda that is destroying the spirit of tolerance among our people.

I refer to the press statement by State BN Secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan on the issue of Mazu. 

I wish to put the followings into a correct perspective. 

1. What Datuk V.K. Liew stated in his statement is facts that everyone knew, as such, the accusation by Rahman that Datuk V.K. Liew is misleading the public does not hold water. Only a handful of politicians with their own agenda do not want to accept the facts.
2. LDP is not the one that tried to stir up racial and religious sentiments. Instead we are the one trying to protect the racial and religious harmony which every Sabahan is proud of. It is those that stopped the construction of the Mazu without any valid reason and to fulfill their own agenda that is destroying the spirit of tolerance among our people.   
3. Why should the Mazu be relocated to another site when there is not a single valid reason to do so? It will be a waste of the people money as the project is near completion when it was stopped.
4. The state government at first said the construction of the Mazu must be stopped due to her proximity to a mosque via a letter issued by the Chief Minister Department on 23 Jun 2006. This reason was shot down when it was pointed out that the Mazu site is in fact 600m away from the mosque. The Kampung Air Mosque is only about 100m from the Town Temple in Kudat. The 108ft tall Pagoda Temple in Tuaran is only 300m from the Tuaran Mosque. In Kelantan, a 118ft Standing Buddha is allowed to be build in Kampung Balai, Bachok, Kelantan, a predominantly Malay Village. Another 10.6m height and 40.9m in length Sleeping Buddha was built at Kampung Jambu, Tumpat, Kelantan, a Malay village. By allowing the Mazu to be constructed at the original site, we will be able to showcase to the whole world the spirit of tolerance among the followers of different religions in Sabah. Isn’t that what the people want? Isn’t that what the Prime Minister wants? Isn’t that what One Malaysia is all about? We should learn from our Father of Independence Tunku Abdul Rahman which was instrumental in the building of a Thai Buddhist Chetawan Temple in 1956 at Petaling Jaya.
5. When their first reason did not hold water, they then raised the issue of land use as well as zoning. However, when they discovered that they will not be able to win the court case by using this reason, they decided to use a new ground when the matter was brought to court, that is the development plan did not obtain the prior approval of the Central Board. However, they soon realized that this will have great implication as thousands of projects in Sabah were built without the approval of the Central Board. Even big projects like One Borneo and the Water Front Project were never approved by the Central Board. Just because they want to stop the construction of the Mazu, the cabinet has made a big mistake by issuing an instruction for all projects in Sabah to be submitted to the Central Board for final approval. This has basically removed the duty and power of all local authorities in approving development plan. Consequently, the Central Board is burdened with approving thousand of development plans which is beyond their ability and capacity. A bottle neck was thus created and is causing a lot of unnecessary problems to the developers in Sabah. It is high time that the Cabinet reverses the decision and admits his mistake. The role of the Central Board should be limited to zoning issues, approval of master development plan and approving of mega projects only.
6. Due to the great implication, they decided to change strategy by challenging the locus standi of the Thean Hou Charitable Foundation which due to some unknown reason; their ongoing registration application was rejected by the office of the State Attorney General. Due to this technicality, the court rules that Thean Hou Charitable Foundation lost their case.

The construction of the Mazu at the original site not only will showcase our tolerance toward each other, but more importantly, it will bring a lot of economic benefits to the people of Kudat irrespective of their religion and race. The Mazu with the Tip of Borneo at Simpang Mengayau will become the anchor tourist spot for the Northern region. This will create a whole new tourism belt along the way from Tuaran to Kota Belud and to Kudat. With more tourists, we can then promote the famous Tuaran Mee, the buffalo race and padi field at Kota Belud, the Rungus long house at Kudat and many more. The economic spin off for this region will be tremendous and will vastly improve the living standards of the people. I am sure Sdr. Rahman will be more than happy if that become a reality as his people in Tuaran and Kota Belud will also enjoy the benefits. As such, there is no reason why we should not support the reinstatement of the construction of the Mazu. 

As to my good friend the State BN Secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, I wish to advise him to make full use of his position as the new State BN Secretary to call monthly State BN meeting so that there is a platform for all component party to discuss matters affecting the people and to find common ground to resolve issues among the component party. For record, the State BN only has one official meeting on 4 March this year since 2003.         

By Chin Shu Ying

04 Aug 2010