Ramasamy sees red after visit to 'demolished' temple

Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy is seeing red after visiting the 100-year-old Sri Muneswarar Kalyamman temple in the capital, hitting out at BN government leaders for allowing the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) to "disrespect and insult" the Hindu religion.

Training his guns first on Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, Ramasamy labelled him a "blatant liar" for saying no deities were damaged by DBKL officers during the exercise onSunday and that only the canteen area was dismantled.

"Tengku Adnan is not fit to be a minister and the same goes for his deputy, Loga Bala Mohan," said Ramasamy.

"Loga Bala knows very well what happened to the temple. Why can't they just talk to the temple committee and get things done amicably instead of this show of force?" he asked.

During his visit to the site on Tuesday, Ramasamy said he found three deities shattered while there was no canteen which was dismantled.

Accompanying him was former Teluk Intan MP M Manogaran, National Interlok Action Team chairperson Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim and several temple committee members.

He alleged that DBKL merely wanted to demolish the temple to make way for an apartment along Jalan P Ramlee, developed by Hup Seng Consolidated Bhd.

"The way the DBKL officers did the demolition was also unbecoming of their posts, as they had disrespected the Hindu religion by walking into the place of worship with boots on," he said.

"I am shocked to see their uncivilised behaviour. I am also shocked to hear from BN leaders that there was no demolition and that they are beautifying the area. It is an oxymoron to say that," Ramasamy told Malaysiakini.

DBKL private 'demolition squad'?

He was referring to Loga Bala's statement yesterday that portions of the temple were to be "beautified and gazetted" as temple land.
 
Loga Bala also said the standard operating procedure for enforcement teams entering temples is "general" despite complaints that they wear shoes into places of worship.

"It seems the DBKL is collaborating with the developer. Why can't the latter make their own road without damaging the temple? Why make the road on state land?" Ramasamy asked.

"Have they (DBKL) become a demolition squad instead of managing, protecting and maintaining buildings in KL?" he asked.

Ramasamy urged the relevant authorities to stop all demolition exercise on places of worship and restore the historic temple to its original form.

Meanwhile, Ramasamy also hit out at MIC president G Palanivel for saying the latter would write a letter to Tengku Adnan on the temple demolition.

"Why does he need to write a letter? Can't he just call the ministers? Aren't they supposed to be easily accessible to one another?

"It seems after winning the elections in May, BN has got back to its own mischief, they have gone back to demolishing temples," he said.

"We in Pakatan have kept our word, as in Penang, we have put a stop to such demolition," he added.

'Waytha needs new blueprint'

Ramasamy also questioned deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department and Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia leader P Waythamoorty's "silence" in the issue.

"Is he hiding away to write a new blueprint? The BN has thrown away the blueprint they signed with Hindraf before the GE by not implementing it, so maybe Hindraf has to write a new one," Ramasamy mocked.

"If the Indian community continues to throw their support behind BN after all these insults, like they did in GE13, it is indeed a sad episode in the nation's history."