I refer to M Shankaran's letter in Malaysiakini , Where is the sensitivity PM is talking about?

Shankaran chided the authorities for being insensitive towards the feelings of the Hindus just because they had demolished a Hindu temple. If it is not a Hindu temple but other houses of worship, I doubt if he would voice his displeasure.

I am wont to think that Shankaran is behaving selfishly. He would not even bat an eyelid if the temple is not a Hindu one, but a Chinese temple, or for that matter, a mosque. Many mosques have also been demolished to make way for development because they were standing in the way of it. Where was he then?

Hindu temples had been built indiscriminately all over the country and this is even acknowledged by MIC president S Samy Vellu himself. There are more than 17,000 Hindu temples in the country, compared to the number of mosques where they mostly sit in private and government land.

How come nobody in the Indian community chided those Indians who indiscriminately built their temples wherever they like? For a very long time, these temples had been allowed to be where they are and in the process they became bigger and bigger.

And with the Indians moving out from the vicinity of the temples, many of these temples do not attract considerable congregation, and only existed in name only.

So I hope Sankaran should be brave enough and be a champion of all religions and if there are other temples, churches or mosques that are being indiscriminately demolished, he should also voice his vehemence and not just wait for the next Hindu temple to be demolished before he vent his anger on how the government, meaning, Malay leaders, should be more sensitive.

He did not realise that the government or the authorities have many non-Malay members of the cabinet, and his criticism of the authorities certainly has direct bearing on the non-Muslim leaders too.

Although I'm Muslim, I had occasionally 'attended' Hindu temple and Christian services because both the priest and pastor are my friends.