If the meeting between Malaysian church leaders and Acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi o­n Tuesday is anything to go by, there are hopeful signs that the ban o­n the Iban translation of the combined Old and New Testament known as Bup Kudus will be lifted.

When? The good news will likely be announced by Abdullah himself who is also Home Minister.

Ministry officials would neither deny nor confirm reports that Abdullah has agreed to lift the ban when malaysiakini contacted them today.

Yesterday, Sarawak newspapers carried news of the decision that had been agreed during the meeting o­n Tuesday.

Abdullah's suggestion

Pastor Lawrence Banyie, head of the Association of Churches in Sarawak and also Seventh-Day Adventist Church president, was quoted as saying that the association had agreed to accept Abdullah's suggestion that future prints of the Bup Kudus carried o­n its cover the wordings of "This is the translation of the Bible in the Iban language."

He also thanked to the Acting Premier for his open-mindedness and sensitivity to the various religious beliefs.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Council of Churches general-secretary Dr Hermen Shastri described the hour-long meeting with Abdullah and attended by Iban and Sarawak church leaders, as very cordial and conducive.

"We are happy with the decision reached during the meeting and church leaders can bring the good news back to Sarawak," he was quoted as saying in yesterday's Star.

The first translation of the Old and New Testament into Iban language was carried out more than a century ago but the exercise was o­nly fully completed in 1988.

Widely used

The Iban Bible is widely used in church services by Iban-speaking Christians who make up the majority of the Iban, the largest of the Dayak group who form more than 50 per cent of Sarawak's 2.2 million population.

A week ago, when the Home Affairs Ministry included Bup Kudus among 35 publications banned recently there was a hue and cry from Iban Christians.

Iban political leaders and church leaders took the matter up with the government. A meeting was finally

arranged between Abdullah and representatives of the Association of Churches in Sarawak.

Home Ministry Film Censorship and Publication Control Division enforcement chief in Sarawak Elias Mat Rabi has been quoted as saying that "Bup Kudus was banned because it breached the guidelines for non-Islamic religious books."