KUCHING: Tan Sri Adenan Satem has given assurance that he will look into other conversion cases similar to that of Roneey Rebit.
"Now that I have persuaded the Federal authorities to withdraw the case against Roneey Rebit, please rest assured that I will look at the other cases in due time after the election and come up with a clear policy.
"This is especially so in cases where people are left in 'limbo'," the Chief Minister said in a statement on Wednesday.
Roneey, a Sarawakian Bidayuh who was converted to Islam as a child, won a court ruling two months ago to be legally recognised as a Christian.
The Kuching High Court had on Mar 24 ordered the National Registration Department to issue Roneey an identity card with the name he was born with and to remove the Muslim classification, in a landmark ruling that his conversion as a minor was not of his own volition and that he had the constitutional right to freedom of religion.
The NRD had filed an appeal against the court decision on Apr 22.
On Monday, Adenan said the department would withdraw the appeal after he spoke to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak about the matter.
The next day, NRD director-general Datuk Seri Sulaiman Keling confirmed that the department was dropping the appeal.
Various groups who welcomed the appeal's withdrawal had said it should not be a one-off case.
The Kuching Ministers Fellowship had urged Adenan to give a public assurance that he would be prepared to intervene in any future curbing of religious freedoms suffered by Sarawakians.
"Further, Christians call on the Government to not just stand up for Roneey Rebit but for every other case where freedom of religion has been infringed," it said in a statement.
The Association of Churches in Sarawak called on the Federal Government and NRD not to object to similar cases in future.
Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian said this should not be an isolated matter as there were other conversion cases which deserved the same attention.
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