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MIC protest over temple demolition

September 30th, 2008
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Looks like MIC is learning to become an opposition party. Hope they will do well and become a good opposition party in Selangor. Yesterday, the MIC Youth. led by its acting coordinator Mohan protested at the Selangor state government building in Shah Alam. From the photos, about 80 people were there. They were there to protest the demolishment of Ampang Maha Kaliamman temple recently. According to the Star, some NGOs were also involved, but no names provided.

Mohan condemned Xavier Jayakumar over his statements that the temple was a small issue and that the municipal council was right in demolishing it.

According to the interview Mohan gave in NST (excerpts):

“He should investigate who ordered the demolition as the state did not issue any such order. However, the responsibility still lies in the hands of the state as the municipal council reports to the state.”

He said Jayakumar’s comments were an insult to the Indian community, in also referring to the the place of worship as being only a shrine.

“Even if it is a shrine, is it all right to demolish it? All this talk goes against what was said before the general election when they promised not to demolish any place of worship.”
The Sri Mahakaliamman temple was demolished by officers from the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council on Sept 9….

Under the watchful eyes of a handful of policemen, the protesters carried banners and posters criticising the Pakatan Rakyat government and demanding that Jayakumar quit.

Mohan handed over a memorandum addressed to Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, which was received by Khalid’s political secretary, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

Mohan asked why MPAJ did not inform the state government of the demolition. He also wanted to know what the state was doing to settle this problem and also whether the state could give its assurance that no more temples would be demolished.

Mohan said the only solution now was for the state government to allow the temple to be rebuilt and the land it was on given for this purpose.

Asked whether any of the Ampang temple committee members were present at the protest, Mohan said no one was there as the temple management were Pakatan Rakyat supporters.

Asked why, then, was the MIC making a ruckus about the issue, he said a temple was a public place of worship for all Hindus and they had the right to protect it.

PPP’s rep also commented:

Federal Territory People’s Progressive Party chief A. Chandrakumanan said Jayakumar was practising a double-standard in handling this matter.

“This is especially so as he has the cheek to say it’s a small matter. Today, when he is part of the government, he is trying to protect and justify their mistake by saying that it was only a shrine built on forest reserve land.”

Interestingly, Mohan said that MIC had taken action and that was why the temple was rebuilt each time it was demolished (3 times) between 2002 and 2007. Now, this implies there was no long term solution in place while MIC was in power. Let’s hope the current state government can do better.

Anyways, here are some photos courtesy of Novinthen:

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Ampang temple demolishment on national TV

September 29th, 2008
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Well, a temple being demolished seldom makes main news especially on TV. The last time that happened was in Padang Jawa, and we know what that led to. This time, the tables are turned, with MIC as accusers and the Pakatan Rakyat led state goverment on the defensive, being accused of condoning temple demolishment. Add to this statement from MP Zuraida, and you get accusations and counter-accusations. The story of the temple being demolished is covered here and here. In a nutshell:

1. Maha Kaliamman temple in Ampang demolished on 9th September, supposedly by officers from MPAJ, the local council.
2. An state EXCO, Ronnie Liu, told the next day that it was not ordered by the state government nor were they informed about it. The MPAJ president is overseas, so he is also in the dark.
3. MIC, Samy Vellu gets to hear about this two weeks after the demolishment, and one if its state youth leaders, make a police report. MIC accuses the state goverment of not being able to keep its promise.
4. Another EXCO, Xavier Jayakumar angers the community by saying that its a “shrine not a temple” and saying that its not registered. However, he clarified that no orders came from state government for demolishing the temple.
5. MP for Ampang, Zuraida says MIC trying to politicise the issue and says that it was demolished for renovation. This is in conflict with earlier statement by Xavier.
6. Temple committee chairman says not sure who reported the temple causing it to be demolished.

Let’s continue with what happened after those postings.

MIC quickly highlights the confusing statements by PKR leaders, condemning them as trying to mislead and confuse the community:

In a statement today, he said the conflicting claims indicated that the Selangor government was diverting public attention away from the fact that the temple was demolished by state authorities.

“We want the state government to come clean on the matter and expose who had authorised the demolition of the temple,” Samy said, adding that the outcome of any investigation ought to be made public.

NST reported that MIC wants the state government to make public the report of the temple demolishment since there are conflicting statements by the two leaders.

MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the conflicting statements showed that the state government had deceived the people over who was responsible for the demolition of the Sri Mahakaliamman temple on Sept 9.

“We want the state government to come clean on the matter and expose who had authorised the temple’s demolition,” he said in a statement.

Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin had said that the temple’s committee members had demolished the temple for renovation work, while Selangor’s health, estate workers and caring government committee chairman Dr Xavier A. Jayakumar said it was the work of Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) enforcement officers.

“Who is telling the truth now? We demand an explanation,” Samy Vellu said.

MP Zuraida later issued another statement on the 28th saying that her initial one was misquoted. She was referring to her statement that the temple was demolished for renovation purposes. According to her, Murugiah, the temple chairman was in the process of doing minor renovation when the temple was demolished by MPAJ workers.

A part of her first statement is reproduced below:

 Hakikatnya, kuil tersebut telah dirobohkan pada 10 September untuk kerja pengubahsuaian bangunan dan dokumentasi. Pada 11 September, Ahli Majlis MPAJ En. Soorianarayanan dan En. Supiramany tampil untuk berbincang bersama Timbalan Yang di Pertua MPAJ untuk menyelesaikan isu prosedur pengurusan kuil tersebut. Kini pihak pengurusan kuil masih menunggu laporan dari pihak Majlis Perbandaran.

Menurut Pengerusi kuil En. Murugiah, masalah kuil ini iaitu tanpa dokumentasi sudah berlanjutan hampir 19 tahun, malah pernah dirobohkan sebanyak dua kali di bawah pentadbiran Barisan Nasional. Barisan Nasional telah membiarkan masalah kuil tersebut.

I’m not sure who wrote it, but its pretty clear that is says the the temple was demolished on 10th September for renovation work and documentatio.

Xavier Jayakumar later visited the temple and said that temple committee is equally at fault. He was also recorded on camera as saying that he talked to Zuraida and she had clarified that her earlier statement was misused.

The Sri Maha Kaliamman temple committee must share equal responsibility for the demolition of the temple, Selangor state executive councillor Dr A. Xavier Jayakumarare said.

Xavier said the temple was built on forest reserve land and the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council was right to take action.

He said, however, the council should have sought permission from the state government before demolishing the temple.

“The state government was not informed of this matter.

“According to our guidelines, local authorities must seek permission from the state executive council before demolishing any place of worship,” Xavier said after visiting the temple site at Kampung Tasik, Ampang yesterday.
He said the council had been directed to submit a report on the demolition but declined to say if disciplinary action would be taken against anyone.

Xavier said the temple committee chairman, S. Murugiah, had also been advised to write to the state government for approval before rebuilding the structure.

He also described the demolition as a small issue.

“This is a small issue compared with other more serious problems affecting the Indian community. Why don’t we look at the bigger picture?”

Ampang member of parliament Zuraida Kamaruddin has denied that she had said “temple committee workers had demolished the temple to carry out renovation works”.

Her political secretary, who was at the site yesterday, said Zuraida was “misquoted” by several newspapers on Saturday.

I still remember my friend telling that “small things will become big things if not handled”. It is wrong of Xavier to brush aside this as a small problem, because this incident is a symptom of disobedience by officers. This problem can easily manifest in other areas. Secondly, this incident is about religion. Anything to do with race and religion is never a small issue.

At the site also was MHS representative, who said that state government or local council must approach MHS before demolishing any temples. He said MHS will find a solution for these sort of problems. This incident can be avoided if MHS was involved.

its quite clear that MPAJ is involved. The next steps are clear – get a report out, investigate who/where/why it happened. Mete out punishment to the guilty party. Anything less than that means Pakatan Rakyat is also like BN. All talk, no action.

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Religion and ABSENCE of plans for Tamil schools

September 29th, 2008
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I’m not privy to the full proposal by the MIC as mentioned by its Information Chief, Saravanan. But I wonder, how do those non-Hindu students be accommodated while Hinduism is thought in the classes, in the name of Tamil language? We complain when our young children are “taught” to “baca doa” or youths forced listen to Islam-glorifying speeches either in school or universities, so obviously its unfair to force others to listen to Hinduism.

One option is to provide religious classes during the Agama Islam period. Only those parents who do not want to the children to be taught religion should send their kids for Moral Classes (perhaps the parents are atheist, or have no faith in the teachers, or are unsure of their religion…whatever). This is a potential logistic nightmare as thousands of religious teachers will be needed to teach Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Bahaism, Sikhism and so on. Coupled with lack of classroom, it will be a doomed effort.

Political wise, this will be deemed as undermining Islam as religious classes are taught in school just like Islam. So, those folks at UMNO and its frontmen will start to protest. Another headache.

So, I’m not sure how MIC came up with this proposal:

The MIC yesterday urged the Education Ministry to consider the party’s proposal to incorporate religious aspects into the Tamil language curriculum at the primary school level.

In making the proposal, MIC information chief Datuk M. Saravanan expressed disappointment over the current Tamil language curriculum.

“Learning the Tamil language is unlike studying the other languages as religion should be a main component of the curriculum.

“Therefore, I urge the Education Ministry to make the necessary changes to the Tamil language curriculum so that young Indians can be taught religious values from an early age,” he said after opening the annual general meeting of the Tamil Teachers Union of Malaya.

Saravanan, who is Federal Territories Deputy Minister, said that one of the reasons why Tamil schools were being politicised was the absence of short- and long-term plans for the schools.

The second thing which alarms me is the statement that “one of the reasons why Tamil schools were being politicised was the absence of short- and long-term plans for the schools”. Now, is this like throwing mud into one’s own face? The champion of the community, the guardian of Tamil schools, is telling us that THERE IS ABSENCE of plans??? What the $%^$&*@$%@^$&%&#%@%%. Yeah, I’m pissed off. 62 years and this is the nonsense we get. Another great job. Why don’t these people do us all a favor and go to the top most floor of a highrise and jump off?

I hope to God that Saravanan was misinformed, misquoted, misled, or mis-whatever.

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Why are 20,000 Indians still without identification?

September 29th, 2008
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It’s good to read that MIC secretary-general, Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam admitting that there are still about 20,000 Indians throughout the country without birth certificates or MyKad. This is a smaller number than the 80,000 or 30,000 bandied about earlier. He says MIC was currently resolving several hundred cases involving Indians who were in the process of obtaining their identification documents.

“This situation arises mainly because a majority of them were born in villages often located in estates. Their deliveries were handled by midwives, many of whom have since passed away, making it difficult for us to get any record of their birth.

“In some cases, newborns were sometimes given up for adoption by their poor parents,” he said .

He said at present, the NRD would require an individual to show proof that he or she was born in Malaysia by producing a letter from the hospital or clinic where they were born. “This is where the problem lies. Many of those born in estates don’t have any documentation. This fault lies with the parents who should be more responsible in registering the births of their children.

“However, the MIC will work closely with the Home Ministry to assist as many Indians as we can to get them the relevant documents,” he said.

Dr Subramaniam was referring to a recent New Straits Times report which highlighted the plight of R. Ragu who was told by the National Registration Department (NRD) in Putrajaya to get a letter from Sultan Azlan Shah to enable him to obtain a permanent identification document.

Ragu only had a birth certificate bearing his father’s name and place of birth as proof of his citizenship.

“This is the kind of cases we are talking about. We do not want to see any child deprived of their right to a sound education due to the lack of proper birth papers and will continue doing our part to assist them in every way,” he added.

So, Dr S.Subra is saying that more cases are happening because the NRD had introduced an additional rule. Therein lies the problem. At cabinet meetings or ministerial talks in the last 2 to 3 years, surely this new rule of NRD would have been highlighted by the MIC representatives. Or weren’t they? Don’t tell me only now MIC know about this.

He easily blames the parents (who are of course partly to be blamed – together with estate management, MIC, Health Ministry, NRD, and NGOs). While parents are at fault, it is also alarming to realise that this problem had been there all this while. If in a year, MIC can help to solve 100 cases, in the past 30 years, that would be just 3000 cases. Let’s put it at 500 cases per year, meaning 15,000 cases solved in last 30 years. So, how many people were without IC before this?

The action to get people their documentation should go hand in hand with education and awareness campaign.Were the campaigns ineffective? Were such campaigns in place at all? For a party that boasts of the most number of Indians, (was it 500,000 members?) it seems to be an disaster that this problem was not solved or reduced dramatically. Whose fault is it – members, grassroot leaders, or the leaders themselves? How about the media? How many times did we ever hear any campaign to get your children registered or advertisement on the importance of identity documents? Can the readers recall? I can only remember THR’s ad that appeared in the last few months. Do we see any ads inserted in newspapers or TV airtimes? How about putting ad during movies in cinema that says “GET YOUR MYKAD TODAY!” or something like that?

Finally, action + awareness is meaningless without the infrastructure or system. What measures were taken to bring the government to the public instead of blaming the public? Did NRD provide mobile registration counters? Were there “turun padang” exercises to visit estates and other remote areas or were this places conveniently ignored? Are they Tamil speaking officers attached to the department offices to help this rural folks?

If some folks in Sabah can get instant MyKad as alleged by various quarters, why not these 20,000 people? Need to grease some palms or due to lack of economic and political value?

In short, years of inaction, improper strategy/planning, “tidak apa” attitude, and lack of willpower and persuasion (and perhaps respect) at the top level are coming back to bite us in the posterior.

Well done!

UPDATE: NRD’s director-general Datuk Mohd Abdul Halim Muhamad response is below:

The National Registration Department (NRD) will go on a nationwide search to register “stateless” persons, as well as look into the plight of odd-job worker R. Ragu.

“I will follow the order of the minister to go to certain areas in all the states to help the stateless people,” said NRD.

On Thursday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar told the department to check the situation of stateless people and give them identity cards.

When asked about Perak Sultan Azlan Shah’s call to NRD to issue a temporary identity card to Ragu, Abdul Halim said that he would follow the minister’s directive.

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demolishment of temple in Ampang

September 26th, 2008
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According to Waytha, this was one of the temples that sparked HINDRAF into action. This particular Kaliamman temple in Kampung Tasik, Jalan Baru in Ampang was tried to be demolished a few times, and on 9th Sptember 2008 (two weeks ago), MPAJ officials demolished most of the temple. After that, I remember reading Selangor EXCO (can’t remember who) saying that the state government viewed this seriously and action will be taken against the officers because never consult with the councillors/committee/EXCO first.

Then, we have the following action from MIC:

Samy Vellu condemns the demolishment and took a swipe at the state goverment because it failed to uphold its promise not to demolish any temples. He said the state should have ordered the local council not to demolish it.

Well, I think the local council did not heed the state government ruling. So, we expect to see some heads to roll. Pakatan leaders must talk their words and get rid of such troublemakers in the local council. Having said that, let’s count how many officials were reprimanded or disciplined while MIC was in power via BN prior to this. Anyone with any figures?

Obviously its careless and an injustice to remove demolish the temple without relocating it first. so, stiff punishment is expected.

A very “fast” action from MIC is that after reading in the papers about the demolishment which happened two weeks ago, its Selangor Youth Chief went to make a police report. They are able to take action after two weeks, which is relatively fast, though not as fast as the old opposition. Looks like the opposition party MIC must be a bit more faster in the future and get news from the grassroots immediately.

While Samy is blaming the state goverment over the actions of the local council, I think this shows the lack of authority and cooperation between this two entities. Local councils come under the Housing and Local Government Ministry. If a new state government faces such disobedience from local council, just imagine what respect MIC got in the last decade from these councils. I guess DBKL, MPAJ etc. don’t even give face to MIC leaders, that’s why we had many cases of temple demolishment. So, we can say that MIC is powerless to stop this problem and its not their fault? And now when the new party takes over, same problem. So who is to blame? the local council, the state government or the federal government?

I remember the Selangor state government saying that no more places of worships will be demolished, and establishment of some committees (just like BN style). the EXCO in charge of local government, Ronnie Liu says:

Ronnie Liu, who is chairman of the state’s local government, study and research committee, said the state had issued a directive to all local councils to halt action against places of worship when it came into power but the officers defied the order.

He said that in taking the action last month the officers also bypassed the committee on non-Muslim affairs headed by state executive councillors Teresa Kok, Dr Xavier Jayakumar and himself.

“I contacted the council president a day after the incident and asked him to investigate the matter and identify those involved,” he said.

“I was told that he has submitted a preliminary report to my office but I have not read it since I am away in China now so it would be unfair for me to comment further.”

Liu had said a day after the incident that he was upset with the council officers’ actions and threatened that they would face stiff action.

A day after the incident. Not two weeks.

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