This two news appeared in the News Straits Times December 13, 2007. I leave you to make your own conclusion.
IN MALAYSIA (KOTA KINABALU)
IN MALAYSIA (KOTA KINABALU)
EX-MINISTER FILES APPEAL AGAINST DEITY STATUE RULING
Kota Kinabalu: Eight months after his shocking resignation from the Sabah cabinet, Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat yesterday filed an appeal at the High Court registry here against the Government’s decision to rescind its approval for the construction of the “Goddess of the Sea” deity statue at his hometown of Kudat.
Chong, 59, who was deputy chief minister when he left the cabinet, filed the appeal in his capacity as Kudat Thean Hou Charitable Foundation chairman and named the Kudat Town Board and Central Town and Country Planning Board at the state Ministry of Local Government and Housing as first and second respondents, respectively.
The appeal was filed through his lawyer Ansari Abdullah, who is the Parti Keadilan Rakyat Sabah chief.
Ansari said approval for the statue’s construction was given on Feb 8 last year but was withdrawn by the Kudat Town Board a month ago on Nov 15, prompting Chong to file appeal under Section 16 of the Town and Country Planning Ordinance.
In an affidavit supporting the appeal, Chong who is Tanjung Kapur assemblyman, said the Foundation was not given an opportunity to be heard after the withdrawal order was made by the Kudat Town Board following various directives from the chief minister, Central Town and Country Planning Board and the mufti of Sabah.
IN INDONESIA ( MANADO, NORTH SULAWESI)
TALLEST JESUS STATUE GRACES INDONESIAN CITY
Jakarta: A property developer has built what may be Asia’s tallest statue of Jesus Christ Christian region of this predominantly Muslim nation.
Officials and Christian leaders inaugurated the 30-metre high statue last week in Manado city, in the mainly Christian province of North Sulawesi.
The white-robed Jesus with upraised hands stands on a 32-metre high hill in a residential estate built by Ciputra, a property company named after its founder.
Ciputra, 76, was recently ranked as one of Indonesia‘s wealthiest men with a personal fortune estimated at US$335 million (RM1.2 billion).
An architect by training, he spent his childhood in Manado and has built the statue as a token of gratitude for his success, said Yuliarso Christono, a company estate design manager.
“He lived a simple life as a child in North Sulawesi and experienced a hard life under Dutch occupation. Now he is successful,” Christono said.
He said the statue, made of metal fibre and steel, tallest in Asia and this had been confirmed by the Indonesian Museum of Records.
The world’s tallest is the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, which is stands 39.6 metres tall and overlooks the city.
The giant Jesus Christ statue in the town
of Manado, Indonesia.
