When Hindu temples faced demolition by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) from the year 2006, a special committee was formed by the mayor of KL after three temples were demolished all in one day at Setapak Hot Springs, Jalan Davies, Pudu and at Pantai, all in Kuala Lumpur.
It was formed with the appointment of the deputy director-general II of DBKL as its chairperson.
As the then-Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) president I led the Hindu group. M Saravanan and Panjamoorthy represented the MIC and M Thambirajah was in attendance on behalf of the DBKL board of directors.
After a series of meetings and visits to sites of temples identified for intended demolition, the committee arrived at some decisions which included that proper ethics will be maintained by following Hindu rites if and when a temple has to be demolished or relocated.
Direct discussions were held with temple leaders and very often peaceful decisions were arrived at. We had amicable decisions when all parties met each temple at a time to solve the KL temples problems especially to clear the passage for dual-track railway from Sentul to Batu Caves. The DBKL allowed temple priests to remove deities when realigning walls or fences to make way for the rail track or road.
Credit for this must go to the chairperson Mohd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz who was a tough but patient leader. He made it possible for me to contact him easily at all times. There were times when under great pressure from the developers the enforcement officers would have their men ready for demolition in the morning and my immediate contact with the chairperson would avert the tense situation.
The end of the first week of December 2007 brought much relief to us when at a meeting with leading leaders of Indian NGOs, the prime minister announced that there will be no more demolition of Hindu temples. He said matters should be solved through negotiations with temples. This was further emphasised by both state and federal governments after the GE12.
Last week I was most upset in the manner a section of the Sri Muneeswarar Temple at Jajan P Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur was demolished in a most inhuman manner not heeding to give due respect to the religious requirement in relocating the deities, and this I understand was done as ordered by DBKL officers. By this action the DBKL has broken its pledge on the code of ethics as decided earlier.
I understand that a young special officer of the FT minister had told the DBKL officials that a Hindu ritual was not necessary. Anyway, to the best of my knowledge no special or personal officer of a minister has such executive powers. DBKL has also broken the earlier agreement to request the Hindu Sangam for its advice or assistance to remove the deities.
In my opinion the authorities have gone to extreme ends probably to please the developer, whom I understand had not issued any demolition order to the temple. The role of the police in arresting 10 people was surprising when there was no court order to evict the occupants at that time, i.e. the temple authorities and devotees.
Further, I am surprised that the the deputy minister of the Federal Territories Ministry was away from this event. Being a Hindu he would have understood the people's concern better. Was this because he is not from a particular political party?
The Malaysia Hindu Sangam has cooperated with the federal and state governments for decades in many of the respective government or other development projects. I wonder why the MHS was left out of this episode.
A VAITHILINGAM is former president of the Malaysia Hindu Sangam.
