Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor reiterated that it was not a temple but a canteen that KL officials tore down at Jalan P Ramlee a week ago.
"I am also a pious man. I pray and I wouldn't like to break any thing which people pray to," Tengku Adnan told reporters in Brickfields today.
"It is not a temple, it's a shrine...I am not breaking the shrine at all. What we are going to do is upgrade the shrine and make it a nice place to pray as well as a tourist attraction."
Tengku Adnan (right) said only an 'illegal' canteen and living quarters, squatting on state land, was destroyed.
He was responding to allegations, including from MIC Youth, that the government has insulted Hindus in Malaysia by instructing Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to tear down part of the 101-year-old Muneswarar temple a week ago.
"I am also a pious man. I pray and I wouldn't like to break any thing which people pray to," Tengku Adnan told reporters in Brickfields today.
"It is not a temple, it's a shrine...I am not breaking the shrine at all. What we are going to do is upgrade the shrine and make it a nice place to pray as well as a tourist attraction."Tengku Adnan (right) said only an 'illegal' canteen and living quarters, squatting on state land, was destroyed.
He was responding to allegations, including from MIC Youth, that the government has insulted Hindus in Malaysia by instructing Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to tear down part of the 101-year-old Muneswarar temple a week ago.
“MIC Youth is just taking the opportunity because there is a fight. Please don’t politicise religion... please, don’t use religion for personal gain,” Tengku Adnan pleaded.
He compared Muneswarar’s defenders to an opportunist who randomly set up shrines on other people’s land and then refuses to budge and hopes for compensation.
“That is people’s land, come on lah. We have got rules, please follow,” Tengku Adnan said. “The goes same to the surau, Chinese temples and churches... if they build on land not their own, we will take action. Now my question is: Why do we always only have problems with temples?”
Last week, a crowd of some 200 temple devotees tore down DBKL hoardings after conducting a special prayer session. DBKL has been negotiating to take back part of the temple land for over a year, needed to build a walkway for office tower developer Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd, which is building right up to the sliver of land on which Muneswarar sits on in the heart of KL city.
Furthermore, Tengku Adnan said that he is also looking at taking action against some of the temples in Kuala Lumpur where they may be harbouring illegal aliens and where officials were denied entry to check.
Tengku Adnan spoke to reporters after officially launching Brickfield’s first futsal open field, available for public use, which is donated by Khazanah Nasional Bhd in cooperation with Cruyff Foundation. Malaysia is only the second country in Asia, outside of Japan, which has a Cruyff Court, a project backed by former Dutch football hero Johan Cruyff.
Khazanah had also contributed the first Cruyff Court in the Iskandar region in Johor last year.
He compared Muneswarar’s defenders to an opportunist who randomly set up shrines on other people’s land and then refuses to budge and hopes for compensation.
“That is people’s land, come on lah. We have got rules, please follow,” Tengku Adnan said. “The goes same to the surau, Chinese temples and churches... if they build on land not their own, we will take action. Now my question is: Why do we always only have problems with temples?”
Last week, a crowd of some 200 temple devotees tore down DBKL hoardings after conducting a special prayer session. DBKL has been negotiating to take back part of the temple land for over a year, needed to build a walkway for office tower developer Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd, which is building right up to the sliver of land on which Muneswarar sits on in the heart of KL city.
Furthermore, Tengku Adnan said that he is also looking at taking action against some of the temples in Kuala Lumpur where they may be harbouring illegal aliens and where officials were denied entry to check.
Tengku Adnan spoke to reporters after officially launching Brickfield’s first futsal open field, available for public use, which is donated by Khazanah Nasional Bhd in cooperation with Cruyff Foundation. Malaysia is only the second country in Asia, outside of Japan, which has a Cruyff Court, a project backed by former Dutch football hero Johan Cruyff.
Khazanah had also contributed the first Cruyff Court in the Iskandar region in Johor last year.
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