Hindraf queries 10m walls in Selangor blocking view of temple

The NGO does not say in a Facebook posting what it intends to do about the 10m high walls.

KUALA LUMPUR: Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, the ad hoc apolitical human rights NGO working across the political divide, has uploaded a Facebook posting with three pictures of a Hindu temple in Selangor.

Hindraf Chief P. Waythamoorthy, in a brief comment, welcomes people to Selangor where “the ‘smartest’ government in the world builds 10 metres of walls to block the view of this magnificent temple in the name of preventing floods”.

“Wouldn’t a smart government build drains instead?” asked Waytha, a human rights advocate who’s also a senior lawyer in private practice.

The Facebook posting does not say what Hindraf intends to do about the 10 metre high walls in the temple vicinity. The name of the temple was not stated in the posting.

The Facebook posting does not dwell on the proposed drains either or the incidence of flooding in the area.

Lawyers in the know said that the worshippers at the temple could file an Application in the High Court seeking Leave to File a Judicial Review against the Selangor Government on the building of the walls.

“Judicial Review, or no Judicial Review, it’s likely that the issue would be highly politicised among Hindus,” said one lawyer. “We must remember that it was the temple issue that turned the non-Malays against the Barisan Nasional (BN)-led Selangor Government in 2008.”

Waytha was briefly a Senator and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department after the 13th General Election in May 2013.