Massive turnout at Kuching prayer rally
By Stephanie Sta Maria, Free Malaysia Today
KUCHING: Christians in Sarawak sent out a powerful message to the government when thousands of them turned up at a prayer rally on religious freedom here last night.
Nearly 3,000 Christians packed the Christian Accumenical Worship Centre to pray and listen to their leaders speak on the controversial Al-Kitab issue.
The rally was organised by the Sarawak Ministers Fellowship (SMF), which is an alliance of Sarawak churches including the Kuching Ministers Fellowship, Miri Pastors Fellowship, Sibu Pastors Fellowship, Bintulu Pastors Fellowship and Gempuru Besai Raban Jaku Iban Malaysia.
The rally is the first of its kind in Sarawak and also the first time that the normally conservative Christian community has publicly voiced its unhappiness with the government. Similar rallies will be held throughout Sarawak at later dates.
A SMF spokesman said that the massive turnout had even taken them by surprise as they only expected 2,000 at the most.
“The rally was scheduled to start at 8pm but people were already queuing to get in by 7.30pm,” he told FMT. “The gathering was bigger than any political ceramah and is the clearest indication yet of our unhappiness over the handling of the Al-Kitab issue.”
“The Christians of Sarawak are rising up for the first time to confront an issue which has deeply affected them. We have been very quiet all this while but enough is enough and we want to send this message to those in the corridors of power.”
The rally was led by leaders of all the churches under the SMF umbrella and held in Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin. Two-thirds of the leaders are Dayaks and there was a strong native presence in the crowd.
The SMF spokesman said that the rally had not come under any threat from the authorities and attributed this to the practice of religious tolerance in East Malaysia.
“A few state opposition leaders also attended the rally although SMF hadn’t invited them as we didn’t want to be associated with politics,” he said. “But I didn’t see any BN faces in the crowd.”
Among the Pakatan Rakyat leaders were Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian , Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen and Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong.
‘A terrible thing to say’
When contacted, Yong confirmed that she had not received an invitation from SMF but from her fellow Christian friends.
