“We don’t care if you are an YB, we’ll whack you.” 
With that shouted threat, MP for Padang Serai N Surendran was pushed by a band of toughs when the PKR vice president tried, with a band of party activists, to stop Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) personnel from demolishing a Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur today.

After the incident, which took place at the Golden Triangle Muneswarar Kuil on Jalan P Ramlee, Surendran lodged a report at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters on the assault he and his party colleagues suffered at the hands of unknown hoodlums.

The lawyer could consider himself lucky for his PKR compatriots, S Jayathas and K Nagarajan, were not only roughed up but arrested for allegedly trying to stop DBKL personnel from demolishing deities on the temple premises.

According to Surendran, a reputable developer of a project adjoining the temple had yet to obtain a court order enabling it to proceed with the demolition of the temple.

Surendran said that lawyers R Sivarasa, MP for Subang, and Manogaran, former DAP MP for Teluk Intan, had argued in the courts last year against an order for the temple’s demolition.

“The outcome of the proceedings was that no order was granted and the case is still pending in the courts which means that today’s demolition work was unauthorised,” said Surendran, who regularly acts for stateless residents and the families of victims of custodial deaths.