Sarawakian’s rights are about more than the 5% oil royalty paid by the federal government on petroleum and natural gas extracted from Sarawak, he said.

“There is also religious freedom and a moderate society that we signed up for, as part of the Malaysia Agreement,” he said. “This includes no hudud law and no religious extremism,” Sim said at a fund-raising dinner of St Mary’s Anglican mission district, which was attended by the Bishop of Kuching and Brunei Darussalam, the Right Rev Bolly Lapok.

He urged Sarawakians to honour Sarawak Day and learn about the Malaysia Agreement and pass on the knowledge so that all Sarawakians would know what their rights were within Malaysia.

Dr Sim also thanked the state government for setting up a Department for Non-Islamic Affairs.

“I am grateful that Tok Nan (Adenan) has championed for us and that he kept to his promise,” said Sim.

“We don’t want to move backwards. We don’t want to be extremists moving backwards. We are very open, moderate, peaceful and we are moving forward. That’s why its important to have a Non-Islamic Affairs (department) to address all the issues including state land and government land.”

He said not many other state governments provided state land for churches. “We need to treasure it. We need to remember that nothing can be taken for granted,” he said.

Rev Bolly also thanked the state government, and pointed out that only 30% of Sarawak’s three million population were Muslim, and of the others, 40% were Christian.