Photos released by MBSA on the demolished “temple”
The demolished temple that never was
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.
