KOTA KINABALU: Those supporting a second Mazu (Goddess of the Sea) statue project in northern Kudat hope that the controversial project will get off the ground in about a year.
The project was being undertaken by the Federation of Hainanese Associations of Sabah and Labuan which received an approval letter yesterday from the Sabah Land and Survey Department for a 1.6ha site along the scenic Bakbak beach in Kudat.
Federation chairman John Lim said the project included a 14m Mazu statue as well as a temple that would incorporate Sabah’s ethnic elements.
It’s on: Osman (right) showing the site of the second Mazu statue and temple to (from left) State Resource Development and Technology Minister Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai, Lim and other federation officials in Kota Kinabalu Saturday. “The design will be based on the original Mazu temple and statue in Meizhou island at Fujian in China.
“But we will make it unique by incorporating some local cultural elements in its design,” he said after receiving the approval letter for the site from department director Datuk Osman Jamal yesterday.
Lim said upon the project’s completion, Kudat Mazu statue and temple would attract thousands of devotees from China and Taiwan.
“We also hope to bring in the golden Mazu statue from the original temple in Meizhou for the blessings of our temple here,” he added.
The second Mazu temple project came in the wake of suit by former chief minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat against the state government after the Kudat town board retracted its approval for a Mazu statue in Kudat town on Nov 17, 2007.
That project was undertaken by the Kudat Thean Hou Charitable Foundation headed by Chong.
On Aug 5, the Court of Appeal ruled that the foundation had no locus standi in the suit as the foundation was not a legally registered body.
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