TUARAN: The Federal Cabinet’s decicion to drop the proposed guidelines for Muslim attending non-Muslim events was a wise move as it is not relevant to Sabah, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
“I wish to state here that the proposed guidelines are not relevant to us. Here, we respect each other.
“Take me as the example, it is impossible for me not to attend celebrations of the multireligious and multi-racial people in Sabah,” he said.
Speaking at the Angpow Festival organised by 10 Chinese associations and NGOs at Dewan Sri Sulaman, here last night, Hajiji said:
“When my in law passed away, I paid my last respect at the St Philips, Tamparuli church.
That did not affect my belief and made me less a Muslim. It is all about our akidah,” he said.
In this respect, Hajiji advised the people not to be influenced by circumstances in other places.
“In Sabah we are peaceful and live in harmony. Many of us have relatives who are from different religions,” he said.
The Chief Minister expressed gratitude to the Chinese community for continuing to be partners in developing the state’s economy.
“Not only that, the Chinese communty has also contributed to education development and we thanked them as part of our bigger family,” he said.
Hajiji said during his tenure as Chief Minister, the State Government had set aside a substantial allocation for the development of Chinese schools as part of the efforts to improve the overall education in Sabah.
Last year alone, he said the State Government spent nearly RM480 million to develop human capital and education.
“This has never happened before. Before this, the total scholarship disbursed each year was only RM50 million. But during my tenure, we have increased it to RM128 million per year.
“We give scholarships to all eligible recipients. Last year we gave out a total of RM128 million to 12,000 students,” he said.
Hajiji said of the 12,000 students, 5,000 were Muslim Bumiputera, 5,000 non Muslim Bumiputera and 2,000 Chinese.
He said the present State Government had also achieved much including signing the Commercial Collaborative Agreement (CCA) with Petronas that opened up many
opportunities for Sabah in the oil and gas industry.
Besides that, he said Sabah’s investor-friendly initiatives had also attracted much investments to the State.
He hoped the Chinese community would continue to support the present State Government to ensure all development plans can be successfully implemented.
Deasoka
