Tengku Adnan reminded of MOU signed with Hindraf

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-j On Sep 10, 2013

The annex to the temple (pix), located at Jalan P Ramlee, was demolished by City Hall on Sept 1 despite pleas from various quarters.

“It is also for this reason that Waytha Moorthy has been inducted into government. He understands the problem best and there are clear ways of resolving these issues in a win-win fashion,” Ganesan said.

Himansu Bhatt, Fz.com

GEORGE TOWN – A day after Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor defended the controversial demolition of the century-old Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman temple’s annex in Kuala Lumpur, the Federal Territories Minister has been reminded that he had signed an agreement before the last general election to safeguard and resolve issues on Hindu temples and burial grounds in Malaysia.

Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) advisor N Ganesan today called on Tengku Adnan, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general, to expedite the special committee on the matter as agreed upon in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that he signed on behalf of BN with Hindraf’s P Waytha Moorthy.

“Surely Tengku Adnan must have at least read what he was signing,” Ganesan, a key aide to Waytha Moorthy who is now a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said today.

The signing on April 9 was witnessed amidst the glare of media publicity by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself. It was a crucial precursor to Hindraf throwing its full political support to BN, and to Waytha Moorthy being made deputy minister after the May 5 election.

Ganesan noted that section three of the MOU stipulated that a new unit shall be established within the PM’s Department, chartered to implement Hindraf’s blueprint for the upliftment of the marginalised Indian community, and to which full executive authority will be devolved and budgets allocated to carry out the charter.

It also specified that a sub-committee be set up by the unit’s head to conduct a detailed audit on Hindu temples, shrines and burial grounds throughout Malaysia, and subsequently to develop detailed proposals to eliminate problems surrounding their locations.

“Tengku Adnan, the solution is there right where you had signed,” Ganesan said. “Put Waytha Moorthy to work. He is in Government specifically for that purpose.”

The wording in the MOU explained that “the main objective of this programme is to ensure that there shall be no more Hindu temples, shrines and burial grounds located on land other than which has been gazetted for their specific purpose by 2018.”

‘Waytha understands the problem best’

“He should be allowed to function and not be myopically told to keep his silence all in the name of collective responsibility when things are obviously being handled inappropriately.”

Waytha Moorthy was recently criticised and told to toe the line by several BN leaders from Umno after he questioned the police’s apparent “shoot-to-kill” action in exterminating five Indian men allegedly linked to a gang.

The annex to the heritage temple, located at Jalan P Ramlee, was demolished by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) on Sept 1, despite pleas and resistance by devotees. Reports that deities were forcibly removed also spread in the social media.

Tengku Adnan yesterday labelled the temple a “shrine” and said the annex was an illegal extension built on DBKL reserve land.

“Why do we always have problems with temples? Not with churches, mosques nor Chinese temples… Why? Ask yourself, don’t ask me,” he was reported as saying.

The temple had reportedly been occupying 5,000 square feet of land in the city’s Golden Triangle business zone since 1911.