KOTA KINABALU - Christian students of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) must again hold their annual Christmas celebrations off campus, after an attempt to break with tradition and have the event within the university was not approved.
This restriction also appears unique to the Christian students, according to United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) acting president Datuk Madius Tangau who pointed out that the festivals of other religions were allowed to be celebrated on campus grounds.
According to Tangau, Christian groups in the university were told that their annual Christmas party event will not be approved unless it was held outside of the UMS compound.
He said that approval for the event was only given after the students changed the venue to a location off the university grounds as directed.
"On behalf of the hundreds of Christian students at our very own UMS, and several parents who came to me for help, I sincerely appeal to the UMS authorities to allow the Christian students to celebrate Christmas within the UMS compound," Tangau said.
"Upko disagrees with policies which bar students from exercising their religious freedom, more so in an institution of higher learning. Thus I have also taken it upon myself to bring up the matter with our top Barisan Nasional leadership," he added.
“What makes it more disconcerting is the fact that [likes of] the Muslim students, the Buddhists and Hindus were allowed to hold their religious celebration in campus. The traditional Tadau Kaamatan is also an UMS annual event held on grand scale.”
Kaamatan is the annual harvest festival celebrated by Sabah’s Kadazandusun community.
The Upko leader said that the Christians have been holding the annual Christmas event at a hotel in a nearby shopping complex at least for the past two years as UMS would not allow the event to be held within the students’ “second home”.
Tangau has been invited by the Christian groups to be the guest of honour at their celebration this year.
“I really pray that there will be a change of heart this year, so students will be allowed to hold their event on university grounds like their peers,” he added.
When contacted by Malay Mail Online, several Christian students at the university said that the event has never been allowed on campus for as long as they have known.
“I believe some of our seniors have applied to hold it within the university, but their application was not approved,” said one student who declined to be named.
Another student said it was just easier to organise it off site as they would not need to comply with the many restrictions and stipulations of the university authorities, although they said it required more effort and costs to organise the event somewhere else.
“It would be wonderful though to have it on campus as that it where we live and spend all our time,” she said, also requesting anonymity.
UMS deputy vice chancellor in charge of student affairs Dr Ismail Ali confirmed with Malay Mail Online that he has received the application for the Christmas celebration to be held within the university’s grounds.
“But usually for parties, we encourage the students to have them outside of campus,” he said.
When pressed about other religious celebrations, such as the Tadau Kaamatan, Dr Ismail declined to elaborate and said he will look into the application.
Once the epitome of Malaysia’s multicultural society, Sabah is increasingly experiencing an influx of religious problems due to alleged social engineering that has caused the Muslim population grow from roughly a third of the natives in 1960s to the 65.9 per cent in 2010.
Sabah churches have been among the most outspoken in the Muslim-Christian tussle over “Allah”, the Arabic word for God, which they view to be a violation of the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.
Natives have also accused Muslim groups from the peninsula of converting locals to Islam variously through deceit, bribery and coercion. -Malay Mail
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