The Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) has stepped in to resolve a three-year-long fight between two groups over management rights over the Sri Maha Mariamman Ladang Metro Kajang (formerly known as Sin Wah Estate) temple in Kamunting, Taiping.
MHS national president Mohan Shan told Malaysiakini the present temple committee (Worshippers Association of Kuil Sri Maha Mariamman Metro Kajang-Ladang Sin Wah) and a group of 10 families are fighting to take control of the temple management and MHS was called in to seek an amicable settlement.
Mohan visited the temple recently and suggested that two members of each family who had worked in the estate register themselves as members of the worshippers association.
A date will be fixed next month for holding the AGM to select a new management committee, said Mohan, who is also vice-president of the Inter-Faith Religious Council.
The group of 10, which includes a Christian family, claimed that they had recently bought some land lots adjacent to the temple.
A member of one of these families who is also the temple's priest, S Atchuthan, claimed he had been serving the temple for 22 years.
Tug-of-war over credentials
According to Atchuthan, the estate management had promised to donate a 1.5-acre plot of land on which the temple sits to the 10 buyers through a separate Deed of Gift agreement. Therefore, those families should be the ones to manage the temple, not the existing committee.
However, the sitting committee's contention is that its members were elected by the estate workers and so they would continue to exercise their prerogative.
According to Mohan, the group's application to the Registrar of Societies (ROS) for registration had been rejected on the grounds that there was already a functioning committee. Atchuthan said they would appeal against the ROS decision.
The temple committee's secretary, R Ravindran, told Malaysiakini that Mohan had given the keys of the association's room at the back of the temple to him but the group had broken the lock and replaced it with one of their own.
What followed was a series of police reports, change of locks, exchange of verbal abuse and fisticuffs between the two groups over the issue.
Even Mohan was not spared from a police report made against him for stating that only Hindus should manage the temple and no others such as Christians.
Mohan said that he was not a racist as the group's pro-tem president R Sathen alleged in his police report.
"My stand is very simple, that Hindu temples should be managed by Hindus, just as churches are managed by Christians and mosques by Muslims," he said.
MHS national president Mohan Shan told Malaysiakini the present temple committee (Worshippers Association of Kuil Sri Maha Mariamman Metro Kajang-Ladang Sin Wah) and a group of 10 families are fighting to take control of the temple management and MHS was called in to seek an amicable settlement.
A date will be fixed next month for holding the AGM to select a new management committee, said Mohan, who is also vice-president of the Inter-Faith Religious Council.
The group of 10, which includes a Christian family, claimed that they had recently bought some land lots adjacent to the temple.
A member of one of these families who is also the temple's priest, S Atchuthan, claimed he had been serving the temple for 22 years.
Tug-of-war over credentials
According to Atchuthan, the estate management had promised to donate a 1.5-acre plot of land on which the temple sits to the 10 buyers through a separate Deed of Gift agreement. Therefore, those families should be the ones to manage the temple, not the existing committee.
However, the sitting committee's contention is that its members were elected by the estate workers and so they would continue to exercise their prerogative.
According to Mohan, the group's application to the Registrar of Societies (ROS) for registration had been rejected on the grounds that there was already a functioning committee. Atchuthan said they would appeal against the ROS decision.
The temple committee's secretary, R Ravindran, told Malaysiakini that Mohan had given the keys of the association's room at the back of the temple to him but the group had broken the lock and replaced it with one of their own.
What followed was a series of police reports, change of locks, exchange of verbal abuse and fisticuffs between the two groups over the issue.
Even Mohan was not spared from a police report made against him for stating that only Hindus should manage the temple and no others such as Christians.
Mohan said that he was not a racist as the group's pro-tem president R Sathen alleged in his police report.
"My stand is very simple, that Hindu temples should be managed by Hindus, just as churches are managed by Christians and mosques by Muslims," he said.
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