INTERFAITH leaders who met Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday came away convinced of the prime minister’s sincerity about solving long-standing problems that have plagued the nation’s non-Muslim communities.

It is learnt that the issues discussed included permits and land titles for houses of worship, some of which struggle to be legally recognised despite being built even before Merdeka.

Dr Mahathir, according to leaders who attended the meeting, had promised that he would personally look into their complaints and that he would instruct all ministers to meet and work with the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Taoism to resolve these issues.

“We have faith that the new government will do better than the previous one at resolving these problems,” said Sing Kang, a MCCBCHST member who represents the Buddhist community.

“We have met other administrations in the past as well. But Dr Mahathir said he will look into these issues personally and that he is committed to building a government inclusive of all faiths”.

Sing Kang and other council leaders, however, refused to divulge other issues raised at the meeting due to the sensitive nature of the discussions.

“These problems are not easily solved and they should not be discussed openly because some people twist and politicise them.”

Besides Sing Kang, the meeting was attended by representatives from the Hindu, Christian, Taoist, and Sikh religious communities.

R.S. Mohan Shan, who currently heads MCCBCHST, said meetings with previous administrations had been over specific issues that had cropped up.

“But this is the first courtesy call and meeting of its kind with a prime minister. We had a very good discussion and he responded to all the points we raised. He said the rule of law will be obeyed,” said Mohan.

“We believe that he is sincere and with the new government, we can already see some of these changes.”

Council vice-president and Sikh representative Jagir Singh said that Dr Mahathir listened attentively to the points raised by the council and replied to each of their queries.

“We are convinced that his answers are genuine and that he genuinely wants to solve these problems,” Jagir said. – January 12, 2019.