“Catholicism, whose adherents make up 50 per cent of the Christians in the country, came to Borneo Island on the back of education. It was education first and then the spreading of the good news,” he recalled during an interview. “I wouldn’t be here today, speaking to you, if I hadn’t the opportunity to go to a mission school.”
He was being interviewed by Radio Vaticana’s Linda Bordoni.
Dompok, born in 1949 in British North Borneo, received his education at St. Michael’s School in Penampang and La Salle Secondary School, Tanjung Aru, before graduating from the University of East London, England.
The Ambassador, who said that Christians make up only 10 per cent of the population in Malaysia, were nevertheless the majority in Sabah and Sarawak. Of the rest, he added, nearly 60 per cent were Muslims, and the rest other non-Muslims, mostly Buddhists and Hindus. These were mostly in Peninsular Malaysia besides Borneo.
The Ambassador, resuming, pointed out that mission schools were at present being funded by the government as they lacked funding. He reiterated that it was his concern that the mission fathers were empowered once again so that they are not so dependent on the government.
“The Church, and the related organizations of the Church, has a vast amount of resources, not fixed assets but expertise,” he continued. “People in the Church have been in education for a long time and some of this can be transported to the rest of the world.”
He sees it as his mission in Rome, at the Vatican, to get the Holy See to support the belief that education was the most precious tool — especially in the developing world — to help overcome poverty and engage in development for peace. “This would be my main appeal to the people at the Vatican.”
He conceded that it took a long time for Malaysia to send its first Resident Ambassador to the Vatican. He attributed this to the country’s diversity and complexity, being a nation of many multis. Nevertheless, he feels that Malaysia along with neighbouring Indonesia – with the largest Muslim population in the world – have much to share with the rest of the world on inter-faith dialogue.
He credits Malaysia’s experience in inter-faith dialogue as the main force for the country’s establishment of diplomatic relations with the Vatican. “There may be challenges and problems but we are still able to overcome most of them in order to make it possible for all races to live together.”
Dompok turns to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak promoting a Global Movement of Moderates, as an example, to rally people together around the idea that communities cannot live in isolation. The Prime Minister, he said, feels that those with more moderate views have a responsibility to work for peaceful dialogue. “Extremism is a problem throughout the world.”
“The way to overcome the fanaticism which ends in terrorism was to engage in reasoning and dialogue.”
The new Malaysian Ambassador has been credited for laying the groundwork for the establishment of diplomatic ties with the Vatican in 2011. He disclosed that it was not until Prime Minister Najib called on His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo in 2011 that a breakthrough came for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Malaysia.
The initial contacts began, during the time of His Holiness Pope Saint John Paul, when Dompok had the privilege of being present in Bangkok during discussions with the then Apostolic Nuncio.