KUCHING, Sept 2 — Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg today told "certain groups on the other side” not to play God and behave as if they have the power to determine who should go to heaven or to hell.

"The other side always fights (among themselves) over who can go to heaven and who to hell,” he said at the special one-day convention of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) held in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of Sarawak Independence this year.

"The power is with God.”

He said Sarawak is fortunate because it is isolated from the culture "over there”, in apparent reference to the peninsula.

"We must protect ourselves. GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) will be the shield to protect the state,” he said.

He said Sarawak is very fortunate because of the very cohesive relationship among the various ethnic groups.

He said religion is not an issue in Sarawak despite having people with different religions and races.

"We have Unifor (Unit For Other Religions) that looks after the interests of the non-Muslim communities while the Islamic entity takes care of the Muslim interests,” he said.

"If everybody is happy, so happy it is. If everybody is sad, so it is. But so far so good, everybody is happy,” he said.

He said Unifor’s board of trustees, under Deputy Premier Datuk Amad Douglas Uggah, has been fair in helping the distribution of funds to the church and temple groups.

Abang Johari, who is also GPS chairman, reminded component parties never to backstab, but to remain loyal to each other.

He said Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) and Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) have been loyal to each other since the formation of the coalition state government in 1970.

"We help people having problems as long as they subscribe to our struggle because our duty is to serve the people of Sarawak irrespective of racial and religious backgrounds,” he said.