KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28: Hindraf urges Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to consider the impact on the Indian community’s trust in Barisan Nasional (BN) before demolishing more temples.Hindraf chairman P. Waytha Moorthy, in a statement to The Malaysian Times (TMT) said the recent act by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) in demolishing a temple at Jalan P. Ramlee and the statement regarding future demolishment will create further disappointment to the Indian community.
“We call upon the Minister to reconvene the long due meeting that was cancelled with Hindraf to find a permanent and comprehensive solution to this long standing problem.
“He should not worry about setting new precedents as long as it benefits the public interest pursuant to what had been inked in the MoU between BN and Hindraf.
“We belief there are about 20 temples in similar predicament in the Klang valley vicinity.
“BN should not further aggravate the Malaysian Indian community by demolishing places of worship,” said Waytha, who is also the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.
He was commenting on the recent statement that DBKL has confirmed their intention to continue demolishing temples or to relocate them within Klang Valley as they consider them squatting on land illegally.
In response to this, Waytha said “Hindraf finds this statement baseless as the government is aware that those temples are neither squatting nor illegal as they had pre-existed within the enclave of Indian community who had toiled for the nation in the plantation, railway, JKR, water works and national electricity board from the British colonial era.
“The failure of the government to draw up clear policies for these temples that had existed pre- 1957 without heeding the importance of a place of worship and its sanctity to the Malaysian Indian community, does not constitute those temples illegal.
Waytha added that during the development years, the federal and state governments as well as the private developers had acted in heavy handed methods in addressing the issues relating to the temples without consulting or engaging the community in a fair and just manner nor created any provisions to safeguard the interest of the Indian community in maintaining their temples.
According to a research, conducted by Hindraf, the above conduct by the authorities had contributed to over 79 temples being demolished amongst which 15 in the Klang Valley during the period from 2006 to 2007.
Waytha noted that one of the key elements in the MOU between BN and Hindraf was to ensure that temples should not be demolished in an arbitrary manner but to engage Hindraf in resolving such issues in a win-win situation for the government as well as the community. -TMT
No comments:
Post a Comment