‘I want my father’s grave back’

Claiming to have been ignored and belittled by the Negeri Sembilan menteri besar and state MIC, ex-civil servant K Batumalai now wants the prime minister to help him.

PETALING JAYA: A distraught retired civil servant whose father’s grave, along with 39 others, is now “inaccessible” is demanding that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak intervene and resolve the issue.

K Bathumalai’s father, an ex-policeman in the British army, died in 1998 and was buried in the Kuala Sawa cemetery.

The cemetery is now the Taman Zed housing estate near Rantau in Negeri Sembilan.

“My family and I cannot even do prayers for my father since his body has vanished in the name of development. We have six family members including my father buried there,” said Batumalai, adding that the Taman Zed developers had built houses on top of the graveyards without relocating the graves.

According to Batumalai, 65, before Taman Zed became a housing area, it was a cemetery belonging to Ulu Sawah Estate.

“It was an 100-year-old Hindu cemetery which was maintained by the Kuala Sawah Muniswaran temple.

“In 1988 the state government gazetted the 3.6-acre cemetery land.

“We were shocked when in 2004, the land was given to a private developer. We found out that the developer is an influential Umno man in Negeri Sembilan and that they built the houses on top of the graves.

“The bodies are still under the Taman Zed Indah houses,” he said, adding that he is seeking for the bodies to be relocated to another cemetery in nearby Rantau.

In 2004, he applied to file a case against the developer and the state government. But in 2010 his application was rejected on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence.

Batumalai today showed FMT several photographs of the cemetery in question.

He is now seeking Najib’s intervention in the matter after failing to receive any help from Menteri Besar Mohamad Hassan and the state MIC chairman T Rajagopalu and state executive councillor VS Mohan.

“We [temple committee] have approached the state government and MIC to relocate the 40 graves but had no success.

“During the meeting with Mohamad, he was arrogant with me and said Indians are troublemakers. He refused to discuss the cemetery matter and used derogatory words against me.

“Even Rajagopalu and Mohan were afraid to take up the issue. When I met Mohan, he told me he if he took up the issue he would lose his exco seat. Rajagopalu always flip-flopped with his answers,” Batumalai said.