PAS has again shown itself to be a political party NOT fit for Sarawak politics.

Two days ago in Parliament, when I brought up an issue of general concern of Sarawakians, ie, that the imports of West Malaysian Islamic teachers will change the thinking of Sarawak Muslims and ultimately undermine the racial harmony that we Sarawakians have enjoyed thus far, I based my argument on the difference in lifestyle, philosophy and culture between Muslims from West Malaysia and Muslims in Sarawak.

The followings are examples of the differences which I cited in my parliamentary debate:

1. Muslims from Sarawak can have meals together with non-Muslims on the same table with the Muslim eating halal food while non-Muslims eating non-halal food. This rarely happens in West Malaysia;

2. While many Muslims in West Malaysia (especially those from Umno and PAS) took objection to the sight of a cross on a building, we in Sarawak can have a church next to a mosque;

3. Christians in Sarawak can use the word ‘Allah’ but this is not allowed in West Malaysia; and

4. While use of pig bristle brushes is such a big issue in West Malaysia, it is a non-issue in Sarawak.

These are the difference between many West Malaysia Muslims (who have been under the long-term indoctrination by the PAS and Umno ‘religious bigots’) on the one hand and Sarawak Muslims on the other hand.

Therefore, with these West Malaysian teachers coming to teach in Sarawak, inevitably, they will bring along their philosophies and way of life and start influencing our young Sarawak Muslims to think like them.

We, in Sarawak, want to maintain our racial harmony and do not want our society to be like West Malaysia where religious bigotry and extremism is prevalent.

PAS has no answer to my argument but instead it resorts to the political rhetoric of calling me “anti-Islam”. This was very typical of the Umno’s propaganda and is now becoming also the hallmark of PAS’ propaganda against DAP.

PAS leaders and Members of Parliament knew very well that there are valid reasons in my argument. That’s why none of them confronted me when I articulated the issue in Parliament. Instead, they chose to issue inflammatory statements outside Parliament after my debate.

I wish also to remind PAS that what I spoke in Parliament was in the interest of Sarawak. There were many Sarawak BN MPs present that day when I raised this issue and none of them took objection to it. Many of them actually agree with what I said in Parliament.

In fact, there are many Sarawak Muslims who are more than capable to teach Islamic religion in schools in Sarawak. When Jabatan Agama Islam Sarawak (Jais) advertised for two teaching posts in January, 2017, it received more than 4,438 applications.

Instead of approaching and recruiting some of these local Muslims, the Education Ministry decided to recruit 433 Islamic teachers from other states to come to teach in Sarawak.This is clearly not a policy that is fair to Sarawak.

For a third time, I urge the BN government to stop the import of these 433 Islamic religion teachers into Sarawak.

CHONG CHIENG JEN is Sarawak DAP chairperson, MP for Bandar Kuching and assemblyperson for Kota Sentosa.