Saturday, October 24, 2009

The demolished temple that never was

By Neville Spykerman - The Malaysian Insider

SHAH ALAM, Oct 23- The Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) said today an illegal structure demolished by its enforcement officers on Wednesday cannot be called a Hindu temple, “by any stretch of the imagination”.

Deputy Mayor Mohtar Hani said the structure in Persiaran Kerjaya, Jalan Glenmarie, Seksyen U1, Shah Alam, was a place where gamblers went to get predictions for 4D or numbers and not a house of worship.

Pictures of the site distributed to the press today showed Chinese deities and altars, along with a picture of a Hindu deity, in what looked like an old oil palm estate.

An appeal letter from the “temple” caretaker, K. Muniandy, asking for a month’s grace period to move, dated Feb 19, described the site as a “Tokong Datuk” or deity altar.

The revelations by MBSA today cast doubts on a statement by MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, who yesterday denounced the demolition of the “temple”.

He said the demolition of the Mathurai Veeran temple was an act of treachery by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) against the Hindu community.

However MBSA councillor K. Uthayasoorian today said he was disappointed that MIC was resorting to such tactics for political mileage.

“They have twisted the facts,” he said, adding the embattled Indian party, which has lost the support of the majority of the community, was using the incident for its political survival.

According to him, the picture of the Hindu deity was brought to the site after the temple was demolished.

He said it was also disgrace for anyone to call the site a Mathurai Veeran temple and MBSA would not hesitate to lodge a police report and take legal action against the culprits which were raising such sensitive allegations.

Earlier this morning, about a dozen members from the Selangor MIC youth held a press conference at the site.

State party youth chief Shanker Raj Ayanger told the press they had lodged a police report about the incident yesterday.

He demanded the resignations of Selangor Executive Councillor Dr Xavier Jayakumar, who oversees non-Muslim places of worship, for failing to protect the ‘temple’.

He added they would be handing over a memorandum of protest to the Selangor mentri besar, next Wednesday.

He also called on PR to honour it promise that no places of worship would be demolished, which was made after they took over state administration last year.

PKR’s Latest Indian Mandore- Councillor Uthayasoorian

We all know that this PKR’s Indian Mandore who’s NGO has benifitted from Selangor the richest state in Malaysia. Now he is returning the favour and speaking up for his Tuan i.e. Tan Sri Khalid, Menteri Besar of Selangor. This PKR Indian Mandore trying to do damage control to water down this hindu temple demolishment which was given headlines and front page news in all three Tamil dailys.

After 25 Novenber 2007 we no longer need to convince the Malaysian Indian on what is a fact and what is fiction. This Indain Mandore should instead convince his Tuan to grant state land titles to all Hindu temples, crematorium and all 98 Tamil School in S

P. Uthayakumar’s public interest criminal cases in three different criminial Courts in three days in a row:-

News Update: 23/10/2009

P. Uthayakumar’s public interest criminal cases in three different criminial Courts in three days in a row:-

1) On 23/10/2009 before the Kuala Lumpur High Court at 9.00 a.m on the transfer of his case from the “bioused” Sessions Court Judge to the Kuala Lumpur High Court.(refer to our earlier postings)

2) On 26/10/2009 before the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court “bioused” Judge at 9.00 a.m on his ethnic cleansing criminal prosecution. (decision on a technical objection)

3) Appeal by the Attorney General against the High Court Judge Datuk Kadir Musa’s decision quashing and setting aside the Warrant of arrest and his subsequent arrest in 2006. This hearing is to be on 27/10/2009 at 9.00 a.m at the Putrajaya Court of Appeal.

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PKR/P.R’s Deepavali present, demolishing hindu temple

Re: PKR/P.R’s Deepavali present, demolishing hindu temple

We refer to the aforesaid matter which was reported in Tamil Nesan (headlines 23/10/2009) Mathuraiveeran Temple demolished (Nanban front page 23/10/2009) Mathuraiveeran Temple demolished (Makkal Osai 23/10/2009 front page). (But none of the other non Tamil media reported the same).

After the recent infamous demolishment of the last Indian traditional village in Penang ie Kg Buah Pala, it is now the PKR led Selangor state government’s turn to demolish this Mathuraiveeran Hindu temple by the Shah Alam City Council. When even the wounds of the Kg Buah Pala had not healed, now PKR/P.R chooses to ruthlessly, unconstitutionally and unlawfully demolish yet another Indian symbol.

This despicable act is not only in violation of Article 11 of the Federal Constitution which provides for freedom of religion but is also a crime by virtue of the Penal Code ie Section 295 (Injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) which carries a maximum jail term of two years and a fine. Section 296 (Disturbing a religious assembly, Section 297 (Trespassing on burial places etc) and Section 298 A (Causing etc disharmony, disunity of feelings of enmity, hatred, ill – will or prejudicing etc, the maintenance of harmony or unity an grounds of religion). Why is it in Malaysia that almost always it is a Hindu temple, hindu crematorium or Tamil school that is demolished or forced to be relocated in Malaysia. Why not a Mosque, Chinese temple, Buddhist temple or a Church?

We now call upon your goodself as the Chief Executive Officer of the State of Selangor to lodge a police report with the view that the Attorney General prosecutes the Mayor of the City of Shah Alam, the enforcement director of the Shah Alam City Council and the Selangor State EXCO Member in charge of the Local Council for the aforesaid criminal offences.

As it stands this your PKR/P.R. State government has been not very much different from your UMNO predecessor Dato Seri Khir Toyo vis a vis the critical Indian problems in especially Selangor.

To prove that your goodselves are different and to stop the crimes of hindu temple demolishments etc the PKR, DAP and PAS State governments must within two weeks from the date hereof compulsorily acquire by virtue of Section 76 of the National Land Code and issue letters by the Menteri Besar of Selangor and Kedah and also the Chief Minister of Penang that all hindu temples, tamil schools and hindu crematoriums and all other Malaysian Indian symbols in the states of Kedah, Penang and Selangor that they would all be granted state land in situ, grant them land titles within six(6) months and gazette these land as hindu temples, hindu crematoriums and tamil schools accordingly. This would in effect solve half the critical Indian problems in Malaysia. But is there a political will by PKR, DAP and PAS in doing so.

This is the only and sure way for these state crimes to come to a complete full stop and which would in turn be emulated by the UMNO/BN Federal and the other UMNO/BN state governments.

After all P.R has granted state land to 102, 000 Chinese new villagers in Perak 110, 000 Rancangan Kampong Tersusun ( almost all Malay village heads) 3 hectres each for every orang asli family in Perak, 1, 000 hectres of land for nine Chinese Independent schools in Perak, 30hectres of land for the Premier International School, in Perak 30 hectres and RM 100 Million for the Sepang Pig Project in Selangor. All of this was within one month of taking over the state government. But almost zero land allocations had been granted for the Indians in Kedah, Penang and Selangor by the very same P.R. state governments.

Kindly take the appropriate action forth with and notify us accordingly.

Thank you.


Your faithfully,

_______________________

P.Uthayakumar

Secretary General (pro-tem).

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Why Isa won

By Concerned Malaysian,

I have been reading all that has been written about the Bagan Pinang by-election results and the implications and thought I should say something. Let's look at what factors influenced the voters.

The Isa factor had a major influence on how the voters picked their candidate. Isa is immensely popular among the voters of all races. Whether it is rightly or wrongly placed it was very clear that he was popular.

Why I say it is rightly or wrongly is because, he just like every other politician, used tax payers money to gain that popularity through handouts. For a matured electorate this practice should be unacceptable as the money is ours anyway and who are you to use our money at your discretion?

The Indians in particular was disenchanted with the way Pakatan Rakyat government handled the Kampung Buah Pala situation. A promise was made during the election campaign in 2008 and there was no real effort to fulfill that promise.

All sorts of excuses were given on why Kampung Buah Pala could not be saved. Compromise and compensation was simply not good enough. It was like a betrayal to the community.

Lim Guan Eng had won a lot of respect when he was prepared to go to jail for the cause of a underaged Malay girl - a true reflection of the Malaysian spirit but where did this go in Kampung Buah Pala?

He also won a lot of respect when he was featured as the chief minister who travelled economy class. This differentiated him from the way BN politicians spend lavishly on themselves. However the perception I got from the many reports, is that he was arrogant and laid conditions for his meeting with the residents.

That was uncalled for as the famous saying that "everyone matters" was ignored. Anwar Ibrahim, the default leader of Pakatan Rakyat, was as usual missing in action when controversies crop up.

The postal votes had a major bearing on the outcome of the results. It was a forgone conclusion that the majority of the votes will go to BN.

Pakatan's commitment against corruption in the states that they govern has not been impressive. One, here we have the champions of corruption suddenly exposed to corrupt practices themselves as in the case of Perak, Penang and Selangor.

Although it has not been proven but the fact that the two assembly men are charged in court (who have also defected) does not bode well for Pakatan in Perak.

In Selangor, we have MACC investigating several Pakatan state assemblymen and if there is even the slightest evidence of corrupt practice, it will be enough to kill the anti-corruption champions.

We have a PJ councillor who made a public statement that all contracts will be divided 40-30-30. We have a Pakatan MP who defends such practices by claiming that politicians can make recommendations but that does not mean that it has to be awarded to those organisations. Again this smells of acceptance of such corrupt practices.

How different is Pakatan from BN although one might argue that this is a lot smaller scale then what BN does? Even at this point if Pakatan has corrupt practices creeping in, what will happen to them if they are given the Federal government? As a champion of anti-corruption, it is imperative that Pakatan should not tolerate any form of corruption even if it is at such a small and insignificant scale.

Pakatan is not a single entity but has three components - PKR, DAP and PAS. Each one of them has different principles, ideologies and objectives. Trust among them even at the highest level of leadership is perceived to be lacking. This has been demoralising to the electorate who for once believed there was an viable alternative to BN after the 2008 elections but now have lost their confidence.

Till today Pakatan has not even announced their shadow cabinet and this is perceived as the three component parties being unable to agree on which portfolios they will take. Can we trust them to take over the federal govenrment and run it well?

Performance has to be seen by the common folks and where it can begin and have an impact, is at the local , town and city councils. The maintenance of the environment, drains, roads and pavements would be a good place to start where the common folks would see the immediate results. Unfortunately there has been no change from BN to Pakatan

I believe all these factors have contributed in varying degrees to Pakatan's loss in Bagan Pinang. If these trends continue unabated, then the tide is bound to change and you will see a lot of Pakatan supporters going back to BN based on the principle that it is better to sleep with devil you know than the devil you don't.
It is also important to understand that the tsunami in 2008 was not because the people choose Pakatan for its ability but simply because of the ABN (Anything but Barisan Nasional) principle. So the ball is now in Pakatan's court and how you react in the next 24 to 36 months will determine your fate. The people are watching.