John Teo's article in the New Straits Times Lessons aplenty from Kudat's statue didn't get the point of former Sabah chief minister and deputy chief minister Chong Kah Kiat's resignation. In short, Teo's article suggested that it was inappropriate to build the massive Mao Tzu, Goddess of Sea statue at Kudat.

Writing off Chong's resignation from the Sabah state government as 'an irresponsible cop-out' was haughty. Teo had likened the Mao Tzu statue to the Christ the King statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro which is completely not the case in the Sabah scenario.

This writer doubts if the followers of Mao Tzu ever had any misguided intention to impose their influence on passers-by. To assume so is to assume that all religious buildings, i.e. a temple, surau, church, chapel or temple have evangelistic desires to convert non-believers passing by or those living in the vicinity.

At the Batu Caves in Selangor stands the 42.7m tall statue of Lord Murugan which was unveiled to the public in January 2006. The proposed 27m tall Mao Tzu statue pales in comparison with the Lord Murugan statue.

Yet, there were no objections against the Batu Caves statue which has since then become a tourist destination. Had Kudat's Goddess of Sea statue been permitted to continue with its construction, wouldn't Sabah have been able to add another attraction to its tourism brochure minus the controversy?

Perhaps Teo has never been to Raub town or Tranquerah town where there is a mosque, chapel and temple next to each other on one same street, with the latter having existed for probably over a hundred years.

In an NST article dated May 13, it reported that Chong cited a pagoda in Tuaran which is only 300 metres away from the district mosque. These are unique cases of unity where we Malaysians celebrate our diversity and respect for each other's beliefs through co-existence and harmony among various believers.

Where should the line be drawn for an 'acceptable distance' in building places of worship and ensuring that one's religious tenets do not interfere with another's? Three hundred metres? Six hundred metres? One kilometre? Five kilometres?

If people of other faiths fail to accept the Kudat statue which is located 600 metres away for any place of worship, will the same people also reject their Christian friends who may wear a cross on their necks or Buddhist friends who tie a saffron thread around their wrists from standing next to them, or sharing the same mode of public transportation?

In Teo's article, he wrote that, '... in Sabah and Sarawak, where no single community can claim to be the majority, problems can arise when everyone thinks and acts as if they were the non-existent majority'.

There is an ill-conceived self-contradiction on Teo's part here. Firstly, if there is no sizeable majority, then how come one sector of the people professing one faith can determine a 'stop- work' order for a statue of people of another faith? Shouldn't the feelings of the worshipers of Mao Tzu have been considered too?

Secondly, the afore-statement suggests that favouritism ought to be awarded to the majority. If that is the case, why should minority groups lose their right to construct a place of worship? What next? Should Malaysia follow Iran's example whereby a Supreme Council of Religious Leaders determines which candidate is righteous enough to stand for elections? Should majority groups be allowed to determine the 'be-all and end-all' of minority groups in Malaysia?

Moreover, why should the construction of people's places of worship be carried out parallel with the size of the majority or minority population?

Kelantan which has a minority of Buddhists is home to the Wat Phothivihan temple at Kampung Ana with a 50m-long statue of the sleeping Buddha, the second longest in the world after Nepal's and the longest in Southeast Asia. This, too, has become a tourist attraction.

With Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman's announcement that an alternative site has been allocated for the temple, with adequate compensation to be given for the initial stop-work order, we hope that this assurance sees reality. We also hope the new site for Mao Tzu's statue will not be taken as an excuse for another large scale mega-project spending of taxpayer's coffers.