Ipoh Hindus demand exclusive crematorium

A temple EGM decides to reject the state proposal for a multi-religious one in Buntong.

IPOH: The administrators of Ipoh’s largest Hindu cemetery have unanimously resolved to demand an exclusively Hindu crematorium at the site, rejecting the state’s proposal to build a multi-religious one.

They made the decision on Sunday at an extraordinary general meeting of the Hindu Devastana Paripalana Sabha, the management committee of the Sri Maha Mariamman Devastanam temple in Buntong as well as the cemetery associated with it.

The cemetery sits on a 2.8ha site at the heart of Buntong, an Ipoh hamlet dominated by Tamil Hindus. Altogether, about 200,000 Hindus live in the state capital.

In a letter dated last May 3, the Perak executive councillor in charge of non-Islamic affairs, Dr Mah Hang Soon, directed the Sabha to surrender 0.2ha of the land to the state for it to build a modern crematorium for use by all non-Muslim communities.

The plan triggered a major controversy. Hindraf Makkal Sakti, the Hindu rights group, said the proposal was unconstitutional and criminal, going against both the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and the Penal Code’s prohibition of trespassing on burial places.

Sunday’s meeting of the Sabha considered two resolutions – one to reject the state proposal and the other to demand the Hindu crematorium. “Not a single member opposed them,” the chairman of the Sabha, M Dhamodaran, told FMT.

He said the Sabha would inform the state government of the EGM decision. “We will make concrete proposals for the construction of the Hindu crematorium.”

The Sabha became the caretaker of the cemetery in 1919 by virtue of a gazette issued by the then colonial government.

The gazette states: “In exercise of the powers vested in him by Section 9 of the Land Enactment, 1911, the Resident of Perak proclaims that parcel of land situated in Mukim Ulu Kinta, Ipoh, described in the schedule hereto, and delineated upon revenue survey plan No. 12,718, deposited in the office of the Deputy Superintendent of Revenue Surveyor, Batu Gajah, to be a reserve for the purpose of a place of interment for the dead, to wit, a burial ground for the Tamil community of Ipoh.”

Lawyer-activist P Uthayakumar, who heads the Hindraf-affiliated Human Rights Party (HRP), welcomed the EGM resolutions.

He said the state government and Ipoh City Council had the statutory duty to “preserve, maintain and develop” the Hindu cemetery under the National Land Code and Section 94 of the Local Government Act.

“The state authorities must build the modern crematorium in Buntong to cater to the needs of the city’s Hindu community,” he added.

HRP is expected to pressure Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir to ensure that the crematorium be constructed before the next general election.

Uthayakumar said the state should encounter no problem finding suitable idle land elsewhere in Perak for the proposed multi-religious crematorium.