More On Malaysian Bible-Banning

Dear Dr. Toon,

Thanks for highlighting our problems.The Bibles are still available from the Bible Society as of yesterday - the Christians and one opposition party are protesting but this may be something that augurs trouble in the days ahead.

As you are probably aware, many Ibans are staunch members of the Anglican church.

I wrote to Touchstone about it yesterday - here is more news.The first excerpt is a piece published by the Star newspaper in Malaysia.Among the Christian titles banned are books by Stott and Packer-spelled Scott and Parker for some reason.

The Bible in Malay and Indonesain remains banned and we are only allowed to use it in church and at home.All this despite the fact that the Bible was the first book printed in Malay(the first gospel was translated in 1612).

N.W.

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Sarawak churches: Review ban on Iban-language bible

BY JACK WONG
KUCHING: The Association of Churches in Sarawak has appealed to the Home Ministry to review the ban on the Iban-language Bible, Bup Kudus, saying it has been widely used by churches in the state for 15 years.

The Bup Kudus Bible was among 35 books banned by the ministry last week.

According to the Home Ministry's Film Censorship and Publication Control Division enforcement chief in Sarawak Elias Mat Rabi, Bup Kudus was banned because it breached the guidelines for non-Islamic religious books.

The association, which said it had not been notified of the ban, said it was dismayed to read about it in the newspapers.

"We, the Christians in Sarawak, do not understand why the Bup Kudus was banned, after all the Penyangup Baru - the New Testament in Iban language - has been in use for many years in our churches throughout Sarawak.

"The Bup Kudus - the complete Bible in the Iban language - has been in use since the first edition came out in 1988.

"To find Bup Kudus banned now has caused confusion, anxieties and alarm among the Christian community in Sarawak," the association said in a press statement signed by heads of its member churches from different denominations.

The signatories were the association chairman Pastor Lawrence Banyie (also Seventh-day Adventist Church president), deputy chairman Rt Rev Datuk Made Katib (also bishop of the Anglican Church, Sarawak and Brunei Darusalam), Datuk Peter Chung (archbishop of Roman Catholic Church), Rev Jonathan Jelanding (Iban Annual Conference Methodist Church president), Rev Ting Daik Choung (Chinese Annual Conference Methodist Church president) and Pastor Kalip Besar (Sidang Injil Borneo president).

Pastor Banyie said Bup Kudus was the only Bible used by Iban-speaking Christians in hundreds of churches statewide.

"Without the Iban Bible, we cannot conduct the church services," he said.