Kg Baru Air Panas Residents Protest Against Demolition of Hindu Temple
By Aidil Syukri, Malaysian Digest
KUALA LUMPUR, 12 MAY, 2011: A group of 20 people staged a small demonstration in front of the DBKL building in Jalan Raja Laut today in protest against the city council’s plan to demolish a Hindu temple in PPR Kampung Baru Air Panas, Setapak.
Led by the Hindraf Central Executive Committee member S Thianagarajan, the group was holding up them placards that said: “DBKL Jangan Roboh Kuil Hindu”, “Jangan Nyaya Masy India”, “Umno Roboh Kuil Hindu” and “Umno Kejam, DBKL Kejam”.
They also meditated for about ten minutes before entering the DBKL building to send their memorandum to the Datuk Bandar Kuala Lumpur, Datuk Seri Ahmad Fuad Ismail.
However, their attempt to meet Ahmad Fuad failed as he was not in the office. The memorandum was received by Ahmad Fuad’s special officer.
Met after sending the memorandum, Thianagarajan said the government had neglected 1,000 Indian families in PPR Kampung Baru Air Panas for not building a temple in the area.
“The government had built a mosque within this very same PPR Kampung Baru Air Panas to serve the spiritual needs of Malay Muslims. They also had built a Chinese temple for the spiritual needs of the Chinese. However, the government had failed to build a temple for Indian families.
“To serve the spiritual needs of Indian residing in the aforesaid PPR, they (the residents) had to build a Hindu temple in between Block G and H, themselves,” said Thianagarajan.
“However, the DBKL had unlawfully issued a Demolishment Notice dated 2/5/2011 for this Hindu temple to be demolished within three days from the date of the notice,” he added.
Thianagarajan said Article 11 of the Federal Constitution stipulates that all citizens have the right to profess and practice the religion of their choice.
“As such, the demolishment Notice issued had denied the right to practice and profess their freedom of religion to practice Hinduism for these 1,000 families,” he said.
“Therefore we ask DBKL to cancel and revoke the said Demolishment Notice and alienate at least a one acre of land to the existing Hindu Temple for their religious use,” he added.
