Complaints about "noise" and the use of a shoplot by a church in Bangi saw police officers disrupting the Bahasa Malaysia service last Sunday, a move criticised by the area's MP, Ong Kian Ming, who said such matters should have been handled by the local council instead.Ong, the Serdang MP, confirmed the incident at the Bethany Church with the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), the umbrella body of evangelical churches in Malaysia of which the church is a member.
"From what I know, the church is located in a shoplot and there were complaints that it should not be used as a church.
"But the police should not have gotten involved as this is a matter for the local council. And the police should definitely have not interrupted any worship service of any religious group," Ong told The Malaysian Insider.
An NECF spokesperson said the church conducts services in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia as most of its 200 congregants are Indonesia.
NECF was alerted to the intrusion at 11.20am on Sunday and advised the church leaders to lodge a police report.
The spokesperson declined to comment further until the organisation received a full report from the church.
The police reportedly told the church's pastor that they were acting on complaints by "neighbours".
The church, however, is located in a largely commercial area near the Perhentian Kajang bus station.
Its Indonesian pastor, Nelson Sembiling, told The Malaysian Insider that two police officers came on Sunday while he was 10 minutes into delivering the sermon.
They did not enter the church but called a few of the members outside and told them to bring out the church's leader.
"I went out and identified myself as the pastor and asked if we could finish our service first before discussing the reason for their visit.
"The officers said no and said we had no licence to operate as a church.
"I then told them to raise the matter with NECF as the organisation handles these things, such as church registrations, for us. 'We are just here to conduct our worship service, we are not disturbing anyone,' I told the policemen."
Nelson said the officers insisted that he stop the service failing which they would call "their inspector".
They did, and then told the pastor that the church service could continue for that day but added they would return.
"They said we could continue the service for today (Sunday) and they would come back with letters of complaint that they have received. I am not sure what they meant by this," Nelson said.
Those attending the church are mostly female Indonesian migrants working at factories and who live in the area, the pastor added.
The church began holding services at its present location in September this year, and is a branch of another church in Malacca, he said.
Both churches are part of the Gereja Bethel Indonesia network of churches and were started in Malaysia to cater to Indonesian Christians working and living here.
The church occupies the second floor of the shoplot and rents it from a Malaysian Chinese owner, whom Nelson said has full knowledge that the premises is being used as a church.
The only complainant he knew of, the pastor said, was a woman who lived on the third floor above the church who had on occasion expressed her displeasure to some of the church members.
The operator of a stationery shop on the same row as the church, Syed Mohamad, told The Malaysian Insider that he had heard of complaints about noise by other shoplot occupants in the area as the service which started at 10am on Sundays would sometimes last till 2pm. – December 2, 2014.
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