Malaysia, Truly Asia?
\n Sabah state has no objection to Mazu project
\nhttp:\/\/www.thestar.com.my\/news\/story.asp?file=\/2007\/5\/4\/nation\/17626220&sec=nation
\nKOTA KINABALU: The state government has no objection over the proposal to build a 10-storey-high statue of Mazu, or Goddess of the Sea \u2013 a privately-funded multi-million ringgit project mooted by former deputy chief minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat.
\nHowever, Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman advised that there were “better and more appropriate sites for the statue to be built” other than the proposed venue on the shores of Kudat in northern Sabah.
\nLocal authorities had issued a stop-work order on the 39m statue which, when completed, would be the tallest in the world and another major tourist attraction for Malaysia.
\nThe order has prompted several Chinese groups here to call for work on the project to resume. The groups also appealed to the Prime Minister as well as federal Tourism Minister Tengku Datuk Adnan Tengku Mansor to get the project going again.
\nIn a written statement yesterday, Musa said he had never objected to the construction of the statue. “The application made by the Kudat Thean Hon Charitable Foundation came to my attention due to several objections raised by various organisations to the proposed location of the statue,” he said.
\nMusa said any decision on the project should be made in the best interest of all communities and maintain the existing harmony.
\nDatuk Sari Nuar Tan, who is president of the Sabah United Chinese Chamber of Commerce which is among those supporting the statue project, said: “I’m sure Musa never objected to the statue although rumours are circulating that he was against it and Chong resigned because of that.”
\nChong, who was also state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, abruptly resigned from Musa’s Cabinet on April 13, citing “principles” and has declined to be drawn into further speculation.
\nThe Sabah Taoist Association also hailed the revival of the shelved project. Its president Wong Kok Leong said his group wanted to meet Tengku Adnan in the larger interests of a multi-racial nation and to promote tourism.
\nTour agency Popular Express managing director Dewi Chen said tour operators viewed the statue as a new tourism product in Sabah, in addition to the Tip of Borneo landmark in Kudat.
\n“It’s nothing Taoist, nothing political but purely a tourist attraction. Like the Petronas Twin Towers, it is straightforward and down-to-earth,” Chen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Malaysia, Truly Asia? Sabah state has no objection to Mazu project http:\/\/www.thestar.com.my\/news\/story.asp?file=\/2007\/5\/4\/nation\/17626220&sec=nation KOTA KINABALU: The state government has no objection over the proposal to build a 10-storey-high statue of Mazu, or Goddess of the Sea \u2013 a privately-funded multi-million ringgit project mooted by former deputy chief minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat. However, Chief Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[108,133,132],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borninmalaysia","tag-harmony","tag-isa","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}