Hindu temple committees across the country are beginning to voice their displeasure over the government's tight conditions in granting working visas to Hindu temple priests who come to work in Malaysia from abroad, especially India.
Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) president RS Mohan Shan toldMalaysiakini yesterday that the temples are now facing a shortage in priests required from abroad because of the government's red tape.
"Hindu priests are required to attend a course before they are given working visas. Otherwise, they are given visas which they have to go and renew monthly.
Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) president RS Mohan Shan toldMalaysiakini yesterday that the temples are now facing a shortage in priests required from abroad because of the government's red tape.
"Hindu priests are required to attend a course before they are given working visas. Otherwise, they are given visas which they have to go and renew monthly.
"Apart from the course, they are also required to get a letter signed from one of the Indian ministers in the cabinet," Mohan Shan said after meeting temple representatives yesterday morning.
Mohan Shan said that the course used to be handled by the Human Resource Ministry, but has not resumed after the recently concluded general elections.
"There have been no courses yet, so the temples are having difficulty in getting the paperwork for these priests.
"We have lobbied hard and got the government to extend the visa renewal to three months for these priests, at the moment," he added.
He said that such restrictions do not apply to other major religions in Malaysia and questioned why Hindu temples have to face this difficulty.
"Why only for Hindus we have this (procedure)?" he asked.
According to him, there are some 850 priests from abroad in Malaysia, serving about 2,500 temples. He said that the temples are in need of at least 1,500 priests from abroad.
But there are further restrictions in bringing these priests in because, according to Mohan Shan, the government is not keen on young temple priests.
"They say the young ones have attitude problems. But we (MHS) will educate them (the priests). Plus, the locals are not interested in working as priests because the pay is low," he noted.
He said that the temples will together sign a memorandum with MHS which they hope to hand over personally to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
"We have raised this matter to the health minister (Dr S Subramaniam) and he has promised to discuss this in the cabinet. So far we have not heard anything from them," he said.
Mohan Shan said that the course used to be handled by the Human Resource Ministry, but has not resumed after the recently concluded general elections.
"There have been no courses yet, so the temples are having difficulty in getting the paperwork for these priests.
"We have lobbied hard and got the government to extend the visa renewal to three months for these priests, at the moment," he added.
He said that such restrictions do not apply to other major religions in Malaysia and questioned why Hindu temples have to face this difficulty.
"Why only for Hindus we have this (procedure)?" he asked.
According to him, there are some 850 priests from abroad in Malaysia, serving about 2,500 temples. He said that the temples are in need of at least 1,500 priests from abroad.
But there are further restrictions in bringing these priests in because, according to Mohan Shan, the government is not keen on young temple priests.
"They say the young ones have attitude problems. But we (MHS) will educate them (the priests). Plus, the locals are not interested in working as priests because the pay is low," he noted.
He said that the temples will together sign a memorandum with MHS which they hope to hand over personally to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
"We have raised this matter to the health minister (Dr S Subramaniam) and he has promised to discuss this in the cabinet. So far we have not heard anything from them," he said.
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