The Malaysian Insider

SEBERANG JAYA, Sept 5 - The DAP-led Penang state government will build public Islamic schools or sekolah agama rakyat (SAR) in the state soon.

It will also restore the allocation to existing SARs which had been stopped by the federal government under the then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2002.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state government would decide soon on the sites, the number of schools to be built and the amount of funds to be allocated to all SARs.

He said the matter would be handled by deputy chief minister Mohd Fairus Khairuddin who is also the state exco member in charge of religious affairs.

"It is only fair that we give back to SARs to ensure religious education among Muslims is preserved and developed. We believe in being fair to the people regardless of their faith and ethnicity," he said during the first ever breaking of fast session with Penang Pas leaders here yesterday.

SARs are community-run private Islamic religious schools that were initially assisted by government funding until Dr Mahathir stopped the funds to divert all the education allocations to the government's national schools.

Aside from this new announcement, among the first things Lim did when he took over as chief minister was to approve a one-off RM600 ex-gratia payment to 1,465 teachers under the Kafa scheme (Islamic obligatory religious requirement class).

He had also approved a RM1 nominal fee in annual quit rent for all non-profit educational institutions in the state which include Islamic religious schools as well as Chinese and Tamil schools.

His earlier proposal to set up a multiracial religious goodwill council or majlis silaturrahim to enhance ethnic and religious tolerance as well as understanding and respect among people of different races and religions is still being studied.

Yesterday, Lim expressed his appreciation to Pas leaders who had assisted the state since the new government was formed after the March 8 general election.

Although the sole Pas state assemblyman Hamdan Abdul Rahman is not part of the state exco, he said the presence of Muslim leaders from Parti Keadilan Rakyat such as Mohd Fairus and Abdul Malek Kassim in the government had helped in efforts to improve the livelihood of all including Malays and Muslims.

The buka puasa event was attended by all state Pas leaders including Hamdan, its state commissioner Salleh Man and deputy commissioner Penang-born Parit Buntar MP Dr Mujahid Rawa, as well as state exco members from DAP Chow Kon Yeow and Phee Boon Poh.