Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor has reiterated that it was not a temple but a canteen that KL officials tore down at Jalan P Ramlee a week ago.

"I am also a pious man. I pray and I wouldn't like to break any thing which people pray to," Tengku Adnan told reporters in Brickfields today.

NONE "It is not a temple, it's a shrine...I am not breaking the shrine at all. What we are going to do is upgrade the shrine and make it a nice place to pray as well as a tourist attraction."

Tengku Adnan ( right ) said only an 'illegal' canteen and living quarters occupying state land that were demolished.

He was responding to allegations, including from MIC Youth, that the government has insulted Hindus in Malaysia by instructing Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to tear down part of the 101-year-old Muneswarar temple a week ago.

“MIC Youth is just taking the opportunity because there is a fight. Please don’t politicise religion... please, don’t use religion for personal gain,” Tengku Adnan pleaded.

He compared defenders of the temple to an opportunist who randomly sets up shrines on other people’s land and then refuses to budge and hopes for compensation.

“That is people’s land, come on lah . We have got rules, please follow,” Tengku Adnan said.

“The same goes to the suraus, Chinese temples and churches... if they build on land not their own, we will take action. Now my question is: Why do we always only have problems with temples?”

Last week, a crowd of some 200 devotees tore down DBKL hoardings after conducting a special prayer session.

DBKL has been negotiating to take back part of the land for over a year, needed to build a walkway for an office tower that developer Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd is building right up to the sliver of land on which the temple sits in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

Tengku Adnan further said he is looking at taking action against some of the temples in Kuala Lumpur that may be harbouring illegal aliens and where officials have been denied entry to conduct checks.

'Contemptuous remarks'

In an immediate response, lawyer N Surendran said the minister has poor judgement and has made a contemptuous statement.

"Tengku Adnan is not an expert on Hindu religious buildings, and is not qualified to categorise the temple as a mere shrine, and not a temple," he said in a statement.

NONE Surendran (right) , who is also the Padang Serai MP, is acting for the temple committee.

He reiterated a call made a week ago for Tengku Adnan to be sacked for mocking and insulting Hindus .

The minister had earlier launched Brickfield’s first futsal open field that is available for public use. It was donated by Khazanah Nasional Bhd in cooperation with Cruyff Foundation.

Malaysia is only the second country in Asia, outside of Japan, which has a Cruyff Court, a project backed by former Dutch football hero Johan Cruyff.

Khazanah had also contributed the first Cruyff Court in the Iskandar region in Johor last year.

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