KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The detaining of 30,000 copies of the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in the Malay language at Malaysia’s Kuching Port has “greatly disillusioned” the nation’s Christian community. The books, imported from Indonesia by the local branch of Gideons International for distribution in schools, churches and longhouses in Betong, Saratok and other Christian areas in Sarawak state, have been detained at the Kuching Port since January.
Authorities told an unnamed officer of the importer Jan. 12 that he could not distribute the books in Sarawak state since they “contained words which are also found in the Quran.” The officer was ordered to transport the books to the Home Ministry’s office for storage.
In March, when the same officer enquired of the Home Ministry officials on the status of the Malay Bibles, authorities said they had yet to receive instructions on the matter. This is not the first time government authorities have detained Malay-language Bibles, and Bishop Ng Moon Hing, chairman of Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), decried the action. “The CFM is greatly disillusioned, fed up and angered by the repeated detention of Bibles written in our national language,” Hing said. “It would appear as if the authorities are waging a continuous, surreptitious and systematic program against Christians in Malaysia to deny them access to the Bible in [Malay].”
An earlier consignment of 5,100 copies of the Good News Bible in Malay, imported by the Bible Society of Malaysia, was detained in Port Klang in March 2009.
Share with others: