Temple demolition order came from Tengku Adnan, says his deputy

Loga Balan (centre) meeting with the temple management and opposition MP Tian Chua (3rd left) at the DBKL headquarters regarding the temple demolition issue today. The Malaysian Insider pic by Yiswaree Palansamy, November 19, 2013.The demolition order on the Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman Hindu temple at Jalan P. Ramlee earlier this month came from Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, his deputy Datuk J. Loga Balan Mohan said.

At a closed-door meeting with the temple management at the City Hall headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today, Loga Balan said the order did not come from him but was instead a directive from his boss.

"The power to demolish lies with the minister," he said, maintaining, however, that the temple was not demolished.

"The temple is still there," Loga Balan said at the meeting which was also attended by Batu MP Tian Chua, Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) president Datuk R.S. Mohan Shan and several members of media.

This caused an irate member of the temple's legal team, G. Sivamalar, to rebut Loga Balan’s claim.

"Deities were remove... how can you say the temple was not demolished?" Sivamalar said.

When Loga Balan insisted that it was Tengku Adnan who had “veto” power in the matter, the temple management committee demanded to meet Tengku Adnan and told Loga Balan he was of no use to the discussion as he did not have the power to execute any effective action in the matter.

Cty Hall demolished the annexe of the Hindu temple on November 10, eight days after the Deepavali celebrations.

Tengku Adnan had at the time defended City Hall’s demolition of the illegal extensions to the temple, claiming the place of worship may have been used as a “facade” for illicit activities.

He also said the temple - which its devotees say has been around for 101 years - was only a “shrine”, and did not meet the religious requirements to be labelled as a full-fledged temple.

The minister, however, refused to elaborate on the type of illicit activities that had allegedly been carried out within the temple.

Tengku Adnan also said his ministry had asked a Hindu “sami”, or priest, from India, who is based here, to examine the Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman temple before Deepavali this year, and claimed that the priest was shocked at the condition of the house of worship.

“The sami was appalled. He said the temple should have been demolished that day itself,” Tengku Adnan related, claiming the Hindu holy man had found bottles of liquor in the temple’s bathroom.

Tengku Adnan had also said that the ministry would be upgrading the "shrine" into a tourist attraction and was looking into gazetting the land where it currently sits.

"Why do we always have problems with temples? Not with churches, mosques nor Chinese temples... why? Ask yourself, don't ask me," he had questioned.

"We will take action against anyone who does not abide by the laws, regardless of Christians, Hindus or Muslims."

He had insisted that the temple would be identified as a "shrine" and  would not be given the entire land on which it currently sits on.

The first land clearance attempt by the City Hall came a day after Malaysia celebrated its 56th National Day.

The temple, which was built in 1911, sits on reserve land meant for roads or walkways and has to make way for a pedestrian walkway.

Last year, the temple committee received an eviction notice after Hap Seng Land, which is constructing a 30-storey office building on the adjacent plot, was told that it would only be given a Certificate of Fitness (CF) if it built a 2.4m walkway along the building according to City Hall requirements.

But that could not be done because the temple occupies the land.