The Malaysian Insider – 30 minutes agoRELATED CONTENT
- Zahid salahkan Kastam rampas bahan Kristian bagi Sabah, Sarawak
Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi blamed the Customs Department for the seizure of Christian materials at the klia2 last Saturday.
Following this, the home minister now wants better coordination of enforcement at the country’s gateways to ensure such incidents did not recur.
"The seizure was not done by Home Ministry. It was by Customs Department during the checking in and out at klia 2. In the Home Ministry’s opinion, the items should be returned as it were meant for Sabah and Sarawak distribution," said Ahmad Zahid today.
The Customs Department is an agency under the Finance Ministry.
Following the outcry from the seizure, the Home Ministry yesterday said Christian books and compact discs (CDs) which contained the word “Allah” would be returned to the pastor from Sabah as it was to be used in Sabah.
Hashimah Nik Jaafar, the ministry's publications and Quranic text division head, told The Malaysian Insider that the owner, Maklin Masiau, had been contacted and the materials would be returned to him.
She said they were seized by the Customs Department as the person carrying it did not have an import permit for foreign publications brought into the country.
She said if a person was just carrying one or two books, customs officers would usually just let the person through.
"But he was carrying 574 books and 419 CDs in five or six boxes, so naturally the Customs officers would check.”
She added that the books and CDs were now in the Home Ministry's possession at the airport terminal and they had verified that they were brought in for the owner's personal use.
"If he had seen us when the items were seized, we would have checked and cleared it and he could have taken it back with him to Sabah.
"But in this case, he went back to Sabah without referring to us."
She said Masiau had been told the cost of getting the materials back to Sabah would have to be borne by him.
Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, the minister in charge of unity, said in a statement today that efforts were being made to ensure the Christian books and CDs were returned to their owner.
"We will do our best to ensure the books and CDs are returned as we are totally committed to the 10-point solution.
"We are making the necessary efforts to have the books and CDs returned as soon as possible to the owner.”
The 10-point solution drawn up before the Sarawak elections in 2011 provided for Bibles in all languages to be imported, including those in Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia which contained the word “Allah”. – November 1, 2014.
