By Norrasyidah Arshad
SHAH ALAM, Aug 20 — The Selangor government has never stopped providing financial assistance to the five religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism) that are practised in the state.
Special Committee for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Taoism (Limas) co-chairman V Ganabatirau said the aid for repairing religious houses and carrying out religious activities is still being provided.
“There is information that claims the state government has stopped giving out this aid (to non-Muslim houses of worship). Also slanders claiming that we can no longer provide the allocation.
“Well, it is only this year that we are a bit late (in giving out the aid). We never stopped and the state government has always been able to provide the assistance,” he said.
He said this after handing over aid totalling RM670,000 to representatives from 71 temples, here yesterday.
In May, Limas chairman Dato’ Teng Chang Khim said the Selangor government has disbursed RM69.4 million in allocation to the non-Islamic bodies in the state from 2009 until this year.
Teng said that the allocation had been disbursed based on the number of primary religious houses in Selangor where the population data of the believers were obtained from the Department of Statistics Malaysia.
Based on the data, the percentage of distribution to Buddhist, Taoist and other religious associations totals 60.47 per cent, Hindu associations at 28.75 per cent, Christian associations at 9.42 per cent and 1.36 per cent for Sikh associations.
He said that the allocated figure disbursed were used for repairing religious houses, carrying out religious activities and special assistance for festivals observed by the non-Muslim communities.
