KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 ― Harapan Komuniti, the non-profit organisation started by missing Pastor Raymond Koh, is strictly welfare-focused and does not practise proselytisation of any religion, his wife said today.
Susanna Liew told a three-man panel set up by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) investigating several missing pastors and activists that the organisation instructed its volunteers not to preach.
“Yes, we do not preach. We have strict instructions during our volunteers' orientation process not to preach any religion. These are oral guidelines for our volunteers,” Liew said in the public inquiry into its second day.
However, Liew admitted that the organisation lacks a monitoring mechanism when asked by the panel chaired by Suhakam commissioner Datuk Mah Weng Kwai if Harapan Komuniti have any methods to ensure there are no breaches.
“As far as we know, there has been no complaints. So I presume there was no preaching. We have not received any complaints and I was never informed of any breaches for Harapan Komuniti till today,” she added.
She explained that Harapan Komuniti focuses on helping the marginalised and impoverished.
“We give tuition at our centre in Taman Sri Manja for impoverished children. It's a reading room for the kids. We also help single mothers, buy their groceries and help market their product. It doesn't matter what religion, we will help anyone who comes to us,” she said.
During the inquiry, Liew also said that Senior Assistant Commissioner Fadzil Ahmat, the policeman heading the task force investigating her husband’s disappearance had showed her three photographs of the rear of her husband’s silver Honda Accord car with the registration number ST5515D, and two other vehicles, a black pick-up truck with a number plate starting with the letters WC and a Toyota Unser with number plate starting with the letters BKB.
“I asked them if they could track the number plates but the police told me the number plates were unregistered, so I think they implied these were fake number plates,” she said, recalling the meeting on March 6.
The photographs were taken by a camera mounted on an advertisement billboard on Jalan Persiaran Tropicana, but Liew did not know when the picture was taken.
Koh was allegedly abducted in broad daylight on February 13 by a group of men in five vehicles while he was driving through a residential area in SS4, Petaling Jaya.
Proselytisation was first mentioned by then-Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar in April, who said the police had received reports of Koh allegedly conducting evangelism activities to Muslim youths in Kangar, Perlis.
Koh previously made news in 2011 when a thanksgiving fundraiser dinner he organised under Harapan Komuniti on August 3 was raided by some 50 officers from the Selangor Religious Islamic Department (Jais) accompanied by policemen.
Jais received reports that Koh and Harapan Komuniti were conducting proselytisation activities on Muslims. Twelve Muslim men and women were brought in for questioning by Jais during that incident.
On August 26 the same year, Koh and his family reportedly received a death threat and two bullets in their mailbox.
