I refer to the malaysiakini report Temple demolition: Memo to CM . Let me relate my actual experience in dealing with Hindu temples. I was once a district officer in one state in Malaysia.

One day, while I was driving along a road in my district, I saw an Indian man constructing something very close to a tree which was on the road reserve.

I stopped my car, got out from it and approached the man who was about 55 years old. I asked him (nicely) what was he doing. He told me he was going to build a 'kuil' there. I asked him why he wanted to build a temple there when there was no Indian community living nearby. He said he had a dream the previous week and received instructions in his dream to build a temple there.

Then I asked him where he was from and he said he was from Taiping (the district I served then was not Taiping). I asked him if he had obtained approval from the relevant authorities such as the Land Office or JKR to build the temple to which he answered 'no'.

I told him that for the Muslim community to build a mosque or a 'surau', they would have to get approval from their religious authority first. This authority will study whether there are enough Muslims around the area, whether there were already mosques or suraus nearby and so on.

In addition they would have to get the approval of the Land Office, the local government and JKR. 'So', I told him 'Mau buat ini kuil, tak boleh buat suka-suka saja. Lagipun saya tak tau ini mimpi punya cerita, boleh pakaikah? Nanti kalau semua orang Hindu ada dapat ini macam punya mimpi, semua tepi jalan ada banyak kuil kasi bina, siapa mahu sembahyang dia punya dalam?'

To cut the story short, this man never returned to the place and the big tree there remains as it was before. The lesson that I would like to impart from this episode is please do not generalise. There must be good reasons why some Hindu temples were demolished.

I have counted in one district in Selangor, along a 10-mile stretch of a main road, there are 19 Hindu temples of different sizes. I wonder whether some of these temples started with a dream like the dream of that man from Taiping.