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Five western tourists have been banned from leaving Malaysia
for “disrespecting the spirits” by stripping naked at the peak of sacred Mt.
Kinabalu. Local officials have blamed the group for causing Friday’s
earthquake, which killed at least 16 people.
Friday’s 6.0-magnitude
tremblor, centred in Malaysia’s Sabah state, stranded more than 130 climbers
from 16 countries on the Mount Kinabalu. The UNESCO World Heritage site also
suffered from landslides. Tourists from the US, Philippines, the UK, Thailand,
and Turkey were on the mountain at the time the quake struck.
RT.com reports:
Two people are still
missing on the mountain, while hundreds of individuals are helping with the
search. Meanwhile, Singapore and Malaysia announced a day of remembrance for
the people killed in the quake.
Singapore is mourning the
loss of at least six children and their primary school teacher who had
travelled to Mount Kinabalu for a school trip. One Japanese and one Chinese national
were also killed.
Meanwhile, local
indigenous people have been blaming the disaster on a stunt by a group of
tourists that took place on May 30. A total of ten tourists separated from
their group and stripped naked on the mountain peak, taking pictures and
posting them on social media.
Malaysian police have
only been able to identify five of the participants so far: Lindsey Petersen
and Danielle Petersen, a Canadian brother and sister; Eleanor Hawrins and Dylan
Thomas, two Dutch citizens; and Stephan Pohlner, a German citizen.
State police commissioner
Datuk Jalaluddin Hassan said that those tourists identified would be prohibited
from leaving the country.
Sabahans believe the
mountain is sacred ground – a place where spirits go after people have passed
away. They say the tourists’ stunt made the “mountain spirits mad.”
“When the earthquake
occurred it can be taken as confirmation of what the consequences would be when
these people decided to bare it all on top of the mountain. We cannot play
around with the spirits on our sacred mountain,” Deputy Chief Minister of
Sabah, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan told the Borneo Post.
A spokesperson for the
Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nicolas Doire, confirmed that the two
Canadians were not allowed to leave the country, adding that consular services
are being offered to them.
The Star was able to
reach the stranded Canadians’ parents. Their father, Floyd Petersen, said he
hadn’t been informed about his children’s fate, admitting that he hadn’t spoken
to either one of them recently. He did confirm that the two had traveled to
Malaysia and were scheduled to return in a couple of weeks.
A local tribe is
organizing an appeasement ceremony for the mountain in order to console the
deeply offended spirits.
The government has yet to
decide on the date of the ceremony, Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister
Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun told the Borneo Post.
“Our priority now is on the
search and rescue of the missing climbers. But it will be an inter-faith
ceremony,” he said.
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