Community leader raises hopes for Sarawak to declare Deepavali as public holiday

Festival of lights: Fatimah along with Lucy and her family lights the 'kuthuvilakku' at Lucy's residence in Kuching here.

KUCHING: Indian community leader Kapitan Lucy Lingam is always enthusiastic about holding an open house to celebrate Deepavali, but she certainly does not looking forward to receiving complaints every year about some schools refusing to allow Hindu students time off to celebrate the festival.

This, she admits, is the hard reality faced by the Indians in Sarawak where Deepavali is not an official public holiday.

Despite an understanding that the community here, particularly those who are of the Hindu faith, can take unrecorded leave for the celebration, the significance of the festival is becoming easily forgotten these days.

“Since it is not a public holiday, it (Deepavali) is easily missed. You need to keep on reminding the schools about this, although it is not forgotten intentionally,” she told reporters during her open house here on Saturday night.

However, she said it was disappointing to hear that some schools were still refusing to give flexibility to students celebrating Deepavali.

This year, she had to appeal to the state Education Department on behalf of the family of two student boarders after their request to return home for the celebration was rejected.

“I receive similar complaints every year. I thought this year would be different because Deepavali fell on a Saturday. I was wrong. It was only after we notified the department, the students were allowed to return home.

“When we request for it, we do get entertained. It is not to say that we are neglected. It’s just that what we want is the recognition for what our community have contributed to the nation’s development,” she said.

Lucy said the community had been calling for Deepavali to be made a public holiday in Sarawak since 1988 and recently, this call had become even louder given the growing number of Indians in the state, which are around 8,000 with some 5,000 of them living here.

She said the Indian community not only comprised the Hindus but also the Indian Christians and the Sikhs. As such, she said for Deepavali to be made a holiday would really mean a lot to the community, giving them that sense of belonging.

Lucy’s husband M. Sanmugalin–gam, who is with the Sarawak Indian Society, added that the state was aware of this request.

However, the authorities found it hard to fit in an extra day to their calendar of public holidays.

“We are a small group and the calendar is full. That’s the reality but we, like any other community in Sarawak, long for a public holiday as a sign of recognition. It’s just that the timing for now may not be right. Nevertheless, we will continue to keep on requesting for it.”

Welfare, Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah also paid a visit to Lucy and her family along with Chinese community leader Datuk Sim Swee Yong and Sarawak Indian Society president Piara Singh Gill.

On the issue raised by Lucy, Fatimah said the state was well aware of the community’s request and was trying its best to accommodate. However, she conceded that it was not an easy thing to do given the state already had a number of existing public holidays.

On the issue of schools not being flexible, she said it was unfortunate for some people to forget about this in their planning.

“As such we need to constantly remind them (to take into consideration Deepavali and to mark it on their calendars).

“It is good to voice it out and once the authorities are reminded of it, they can address the matter,” she added.