Ramasamy, as DCM II, should have instead issued directives to local authority to take charge and maintain the cemetery, says HRP.
GEORGE TOWN: The Human Rights Party today blasted the Hindu Endowment Board (HEB) Penang for attempting to take over an abandoned Hindu cemetery near Batu Kawan Stadium.
HRP executive committee member M Karunai Nithi said it was incumbent upon the Seberang Perai Municipality (MPSB), and not the HEB, to gazette, manage and maintain the burial ground.
He said Section 94 of the Local Government Act 1976 specifies this.
“The Chinese community may want to manage and maintain on their own their cemeteries because they have the financial capacity to do so.
“However, the local authorities owed a public responsibility to gazette, operate and maintain burial grounds for Hindus. It’s a
statutory obligation,” he told FMT here today.
He pointed out that local authorities have been operating, maintaining and fully funding Muslim cemeteries in the country either directly or indirectly via Muslim groups.
Therefore, he said local authorities shall do same for other communities.
“Why can’t MPSP do the same for the Batu Kawan Hindu cemetery? Have racist policies been expanded even to the dead?” asked Karunai Nithi.
On Tuesday, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy revealed that the HEB, which he chairs, plans to take over ownership and management of the abandoned Hindu cemetery.
The five-acre cemetery, containing over 1,000 deceased burial grounds, had been abandoned by its previous owner, the Sri Maha Mariamman temple management committee.
The temple management abandoned the cemetery in exchange for a two-acre burial ground during a land acquisition by the Penang Development Corporation to facilitate the construction of Stadium Batu Kawan.
Typical mandore attitude
Karunai Nithi rebuked Ramasamy’s overtures for a HEB takeover saying that it was yet another blatant act of “mandorism ala Pakatan Rakyat.”
He said Ramasamy, as DCM II, should have instead issued directives to MPSP, vis-a-vis the state executive council to take over, operate and maintain the cemetery, or indirectly fund HEB to do it on its behalf.
“Instead, Ramasamy in a typical mandore fashion comes in to take over the cemetery and let MPSP go scot free from fulfilling its statutory duty,” said Karunai Nithi.
Ramasamy has said that HEB could buy the cemetery for RM1 premium. HEB is a statutory body set up by the British colonial rulers in 1900s as public trust to manage properties belonging to Hindus in Penang.
Ramasamy also said that, as a HEB head and Batu Kawan MP, he has a social responsibility to safeguard the political, social and cultural interests of Penang Indians.
“I will not sit ideal and be a witness the gradual loss of Indian cultural and social spaces in the state,” said the former academician.
Karunai Nithi said Ramasamy should prove this by using HEB to purchase, gazette and maintain the now extinct 2.5ha Kampung Buah Pala as a permanent Indian settlement.
The village, once commonly known as Tamil High Chaparral, was flattened in 2009 to pave away for a posh condominium project called the Oasis.
“Why did Ramasamy not do it then and why does wants HEB to take over a cemetery when it was a statutory public duty of the local authorities?
“Why didn’t he use his DCM II powers then when it counted most? Isn’t this a typical zero mandore politics?” asked Karunai Nithi.
GEORGE TOWN: The Human Rights Party today blasted the Hindu Endowment Board (HEB) Penang for attempting to take over an abandoned Hindu cemetery near Batu Kawan Stadium.HRP executive committee member M Karunai Nithi said it was incumbent upon the Seberang Perai Municipality (MPSB), and not the HEB, to gazette, manage and maintain the burial ground.
He said Section 94 of the Local Government Act 1976 specifies this.
“The Chinese community may want to manage and maintain on their own their cemeteries because they have the financial capacity to do so.
“However, the local authorities owed a public responsibility to gazette, operate and maintain burial grounds for Hindus. It’s a
statutory obligation,” he told FMT here today.
He pointed out that local authorities have been operating, maintaining and fully funding Muslim cemeteries in the country either directly or indirectly via Muslim groups.
Therefore, he said local authorities shall do same for other communities.
“Why can’t MPSP do the same for the Batu Kawan Hindu cemetery? Have racist policies been expanded even to the dead?” asked Karunai Nithi.
On Tuesday, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy revealed that the HEB, which he chairs, plans to take over ownership and management of the abandoned Hindu cemetery.
The five-acre cemetery, containing over 1,000 deceased burial grounds, had been abandoned by its previous owner, the Sri Maha Mariamman temple management committee.
The temple management abandoned the cemetery in exchange for a two-acre burial ground during a land acquisition by the Penang Development Corporation to facilitate the construction of Stadium Batu Kawan.
Typical mandore attitude
Karunai Nithi rebuked Ramasamy’s overtures for a HEB takeover saying that it was yet another blatant act of “mandorism ala Pakatan Rakyat.”
He said Ramasamy, as DCM II, should have instead issued directives to MPSP, vis-a-vis the state executive council to take over, operate and maintain the cemetery, or indirectly fund HEB to do it on its behalf.
“Instead, Ramasamy in a typical mandore fashion comes in to take over the cemetery and let MPSP go scot free from fulfilling its statutory duty,” said Karunai Nithi.
Ramasamy has said that HEB could buy the cemetery for RM1 premium. HEB is a statutory body set up by the British colonial rulers in 1900s as public trust to manage properties belonging to Hindus in Penang.
Ramasamy also said that, as a HEB head and Batu Kawan MP, he has a social responsibility to safeguard the political, social and cultural interests of Penang Indians.
“I will not sit ideal and be a witness the gradual loss of Indian cultural and social spaces in the state,” said the former academician.
Karunai Nithi said Ramasamy should prove this by using HEB to purchase, gazette and maintain the now extinct 2.5ha Kampung Buah Pala as a permanent Indian settlement.
The village, once commonly known as Tamil High Chaparral, was flattened in 2009 to pave away for a posh condominium project called the Oasis.
“Why did Ramasamy not do it then and why does wants HEB to take over a cemetery when it was a statutory public duty of the local authorities?
“Why didn’t he use his DCM II powers then when it counted most? Isn’t this a typical zero mandore politics?” asked Karunai Nithi.
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