Govt blamed for illegal temples

Hindu leader says Putrajaya's failure to allocate land for places of worship is the reason temples are built on private land.

PETALING JAYA: The government’s failure to allocate land for places of worship has resulted in most Hindu temples and shrines being built illegally on private land, Malaysian Hindu Sangam president S Mogan said today.

“This is because the government didn’t give us proper land. There is no proper land allocated for the temples,” he said when asked to comment on the attempted demolition of the Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman Hindu temple at Jalan P. Ramlee on Sunday.

“The population of Indians have increased but there is no land allocated for temples. So the people have to build (temples) on government land and when it comes to development, there will be lots of problems,” he added.

Mogan disclosed that there are a total of 2,358 temples and shrines across the country, and that “most of them” were built illegally on government land.

He added that relocation of places of worship is possible but stressed that the “government and developer must relocate us to proper areas”.

“I don’t think anyone wants a temple to be built near a sewerage or anywhere that is not proper. They must relocate us to a better place,” he said.

“Of course, we would consider relocation and are ready to move. We are not so stubborn as to stay in the same place forever,” he added.

Mogan also said financial assistance from the government and developers was necessary following relocation of a temple.

“Building a temple is expensive. If you give us land but no money, it would take us years to build the temple,” he said, adding that his group was fully dedicated to working diligently to ensure the smooth communication and transaction between the government, developers and temple committees.

“We are working together with the temple management to see if we can hold a dialogue with the government and developers, and reach a fair deal with them,” he said.

“We are meeting to discuss on how to resolve the problems and to come to a better understanding of the issues including the proper way to relocate a temple,” he added.

Asked if he believed the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) was right to demolish part of the Sri Muneswarar Kaliamman Hindu temple, Mogan said the authorities should have discussed the matter with the temple
committee before doing so.

“What they’ve done is not right because they simply came in and removed the statues,” he said.

“When it comes to statues, there are a lot of religious rites to conform to before you remove something,” he said, adding that “non-Hindus came and removed the statues.”

“It is not right according to our belief. So, what they did was wrong. There are better ways to resolve the problem.The matter should have been discussed and a better understanding should have been reached.”

In June, it was reported that a planned demolition of the temple by DBKL was halted after it was discovered that a developer was comtemplating suing the federal government for the same land.

In July last year, the developer Hap Seng which premises is located next to the temple filed a suit against DBKL in a bid to obtain the land for a development project. The temple currently sits on a DBKL reserve land.