THERE were no intentions to show disrespect to any religion in his recent Facebook post on alleged “forced Islamisation” in his state, said Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Wilfred Madius Tangau.

He said this after spending four hours giving his statement to the police over his post.

He also did not comment on calls for him to apologise, saying he has a memorandum dating back 38 years over the alleged incident.

“I am confident the police will investigate this matter fairly and professionally.

“I have given my full cooperation and gave the relevant documents supporting and explaining my post.

“Among the documents is a memorandum that was given to me when I was a student leader in 1982.”

Tangau, who is also Sabah trade and industries minister, said more than 2,000 signatures, including one from a respectable KadazanDusun leader, were collected in the memorandum.

The memorandum was meant for the then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and was handed over to the then Education Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The Malaysian Insight was made to understand that no actions were taken by the federal government at the time.

The said memorandum, among others, wanted to compel the federal government to intervene the alleged forced Islamisation.

Tangau said police informed him that they had received 33 reports against his controversial July 21 post.

He had written about a past Sabah leader who had organised mass conversion exercise in Tambunan 38 years ago.

He did not name the leader, but during that period, Sabah was under the Berjaya state government with Harris Salleh as chief minister.

“I will not share the content of the memorandum but suffice to say that it serves as a reminder of the regretful action of the leader.

“The statement that I had written is not about religion as it is about expressing appreciation towards chief minister Shafie Apdal who has shown concern and care for the well-being of the Sabah churches.” – July 31, 2019.