Ministry looking into claims Sabah Christian students forced to pray under tree

The Labuan Matriculation College in Sabah has been told to probe into claims that Christian students were forced to pray under a tree if they wanted to take part in the Students' Parliament.

Sabah paper, the Daily Express reported on its website today that the Education Ministry had ordered the college to investigate the claims, which included telling the students to wear Muslim headscarves and songkok.

The newspaper reported in its portal that Christian students were not given a place in the college building to meet for prayers and were asked to pray under a tree.

It also said that students had complained about being told to don tudung if they wanted to join the Students' Parliament.

The students' parents were unhappy with these events, it reported.

"The poor students are forced to pray under the sun or tree in the compound. Even then, the security guard would allegedly harass them (students) to hurry up, forcing them to stop even before they can finish praying.

"This is ridiculous, especially when freedom of worship is guaranteed in the Federal Constitution and the nation's leaders keep reiterating this," the Daily Express said.

Quoting a source, the paper also said a Christian lecturer had shown a letter from the Education Department to the Catholic Church of Sabah to the college director, Sawang Amit.

The letter concerned the college's move to stop non-Muslim students from praying inside.

But Swang denied any knowledge of the letter and said that there was no approval from the ministry to allow Christian students to pray inside, the news portal reported.

After failing to get a response from Sawang, the Daily Express contacted Deputy Education Minister I, Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching, on Friday.

Yap said the claims against the college were serious and the school's officers had been instructed to investigate them.

"We want to ascertain if there is any truth in the allegations. They will report back to me," she was quoted as saying.

The article also caught the attention of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, who is the Kota Belud MP.

"This has been happening way too frequent. Normally apology's issued. But enough is enough. Action must be taken against the officers. #LMC," he said on Twitter this afternoon.

Rahman, who actively tweets via the handle @mpkotabelud, also posted a snapshot of the Daily Express' article.

"If this claim is true, immediate action must be taken by MOE (Education Ministry) officers to rectify and not repeat such incident."

The college, according to Daily Express, was also embroiled in a controversy in July 2012 when Christian students from Sabah and Sarawak were pressured to convert to another faith.

It was said three students allegedly converted but it could not be confirmed although a probe into it was called.

In October 2012, Catholic bishops in Sabah jointly signed a letter together with a report from the Sabah Catholic Diocesan Centre, and called for a full probe into allegations of attempts to convert non-Muslims in local institutions of higher education.

The letter was sent to the "highest authorities" with copies addressed to Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as well as Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili, who were ministers from Sabah at the time.

In December 2012, the Education Ministry met with representatives from the Catholic Diocesan Centre over the matter. – November 29, 2014.

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