THE Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government will continue to protect religious freedom and reject extremism that can jeopardise the harmony enjoyed by the state’s multiracial and multireligious communities.

GPS chairman Abang Johari Openg, who is also Sarawak premier, said the state is already well known for its multiracial and multireligious society, and has never faced any problems of uniting in diversity.

He said in Sarawak, there are Christian and Muslim families who can live under one roof without any problems.

“In Sarawak, we are quite fortunate to be protected from the religious and racial conflicts that often happen in other places,” Abang Johari said in his Christmas message in Kuching today.

“Our immigration autonomy is able to block religious extremists from setting foot in Sarawak.”

He said Sarawak is not completely protected from elements of extremism that infiltrate the state through cyber channels such as social media, which are usually used for the political interests of certain parties.

“Our bastion from these elements is our own wisdom alone to filter the good from the bad and the facts from the lies,” he said.

Separately, Abang Johari gave his commitment that GPS will continue to champion Sarawak’s interests and rights as enshrined in the Federal Constitution and Malaysia Agreement 1963.

“The formation of GPS was a good step to ensure the Sarawak voice is not ‘drowned out’ in the national scene,” he said.

“There are no people more sincere than Sarawakians themselves in the struggle to uphold justice for the Land of the Hornbills.” – Bernama, December 24, 2022.