In a statement, the US-based society’s president Rajan Zed said it was shocking and saddening to learn about the damage.
“These Hindu temple ruins, besides being dear to Hindus, were a highly important heritage for Malaysians and the world,” he added.
Rajan (left)
urged Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to launch a thorough
investigation into this damage and allocate additional funding to
conserve the area.He also asked the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) to declare Lembah Bujang a World Heritage Site and help fund its preservation efforts.
“It needs to be urgently protected and some serious efforts and strong political will be needed in this direction by the Malaysian government,” he added.
Rajan said efforts must be made to reconstruct the damaged structure and the developer responsible should provide most of the funding.
He argued that such callous treatment to ancient monuments should not be acceptable in Malaysia and the world.
“This
should serve as a wake-up call for Malaysia and the world to take care
of heritage sites and Malaysia should declare all Lembah Bujang
archaeological sites as national heritage sites,” he said.Rajan also wondered why it took so long for this damage to come to light.
“Chalking out some proactive policies for preservation of these valuable monuments might help in the future.
“According
to reports, there were many temple ruins in the Bujang Valley which
were still undocumented and damage caused to some during the recent
development might have thus gone unnoticed,” he said.“Malaysians should be proud of their legacy in the Bujang Valley and should preserve for future generations what their ancestors left for them,” he added.
Rajan stressed that any further irresponsible and needless damage to the sites must be prevented with swift action.
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