Another ‘mamangkis’, a distress call of a Christian native in Borneo

By admin-s On Feb 25, 2015

The mamangkis is a war cry used by pagan ancestors of local natives to rally warriors for battle against the enemy. Now it has been adopted as a clarion call of Christian natives in Sabah for revival.

Joe Leong, The Ant Daily

Yet another cry of distress and a violation of the paramount law of the land. Another ‘mamangkis’ by a native of Borneo!

This time, the distress call has come out loud and clear from Jilius Yapoo, a 47-year-old rubber tapper from Kg Kaiduan in Kinarut, Sabah, who was shocked to discover that his teenage daughter was converted into Islam without parental consent as required by the law.

As Malaysians, we have a duty to know and understand why this son of the soil from a rural village known as Kaiduan is in such a state of distress as a result of what has happened to his family.

First and foremost, it is no easy task for a rubber tapper with his poor earnings to provide for all the needs of a big family with eight children aged from one to 17 years.

Since there is no secondary school near the village, he had no choice but to send four of his elder children to SMK Kinarut, some 30km away from home.

Because of the long distance and not being able to afford the high cost of transporting them to school on a daily basis, Jilius had arranged for them to stay at the school hostel.

Little did he realise that these young and innocent ones could be subject to a new kind of danger. His 16-year-old girl was alleged to be converted by her hostel warden to Islam in late January and his family found out about it only when she came home during a school break recently, donning a tudung, a Muslim headscarf.

After the incident was brought to light and another round of such a controversy erupted in the local media, no one owned up to any wrong doing.

Datuk Jame Alip, director of Sabah Education Department said his department would leave the issue to the Sabah Islamic Affairs Department to decide. A typical civil service habit of passing a hot potato to the hands of another department to handle.

Jame told the media that the schoolgirl concerned had asked the school hostel warden to witness her reciting the ‘kalimah shahadah’ (a solemn declaration of her wish to become a Muslim). He claimed that the girl was interested in converting and had learnt how to recite the shahadah by herself.

What the education director did not explain was why neither the hostel warden, class teacher of the girl, nor the principal of the school notify her parents of the girl’s intention knowing very well this is against the law. The department has clearly failed its duty and responsibility to do so.