KUCHING, October 7 2025: Sarawak activist Peter John Jaban (picture) is calling on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to promote the needs and profile of the tourism industry in Malaysia before even entertaining demands to sack Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing over the serving of alcohol at a private sector dinner hosted by the global industry partners.
He is reminding lawmakers that, despite the need to act with tolerance and mutual respect to all races and religions, government in Malaysia is and should remain secular and that alcohol is enjoyed freely by many of the international visitors as a feature of multi-cultural Malaysia’s tourism offering.
“We live in a multicultural society. Alcohol is neither banned nor indeed considered immoral by a large proportion of Malaysians.
“In fact, the fermenting and distilling of alcohol is an important part of the culture of many of our indigenous groups, including for ritual purposes,” he said in a statement in response to Anwar’s warning to Tiong during the federal cabinet meeting.
“We must respect all the cultures and religions of Malaysia, of course. But, Tiong has already clarified that this was a private sector dinner.
“The Malaysian Muslim taxpayers have not been asked to pay for the alcohol in this case. So why is this an issue for consideration by Cabinet? Do they not have more important issues to discuss?” Peter asked.
He went on to say: “We routinely serve alcohol to our many visitors to Malaysia, creating huge profits for our tourism industry for the good of the country.
“Langkawi island even provides alcohol duty free. So why should serving alcohol at a dinner for international guests, at the expense of the private sector, be an issue?
“This is an expectation for the citizens of some countries,” he said.
Peter asked why should it even be an issue to have people drinking in the same room as a Muslim?
“If that is the case, we must either ban alcohol in all our international hotels and see the end of our tourism sector, or else ban all Muslims from working in these establishments,” he said.
“We must not normalise this kind of discourse in our parliament in which our lawmakers are using their Islamic values to increase their own profile.
“Even Sarawak is not immune. We have had a similar issue here over a locally-produced beer
brand named after one of our most recognisable natural features.
“Santubong is not a race, a religion or even a community.
“It is, instead, a peninsula and more importantly an iconic mountain, at the foot of which both Chinese and Hindu archaeological artefacts, dating back to the 7th Century, have been uncovered.
“It certainly does not belong to one single religious group in the state and nor should we allow it to,” he added.
“I call on our lawmakers to focus on the issues and to stop reverting to race and religion as their main talking points. If no offence was intended, then perhaps none should be taken.
“We must, as Malaysians, accept the views of the many cultures who visit our country and enjoy our hospitality if we expect to profit from their contribution to our economy.
“Anything else is just hypocrisy. And equally we must respect the multicultural basis of the country we all share,” he said.
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