'Tengku Adnan misled House on Jln P Ramlee temple'

Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor “misled” the Dewan Rakyat in saying there is a court order allowing the demolition of Kuala Lumpur’s Sri Muneswarar Kaliyamman Temple, Subang MP R Sivarasa said.

He said that this was because the court itself had stressed that there is no order for the temple’s demolition.

In his May 30, 2013, judgment, Justice VT Singham said that the July 5, 2012 judgment “does not include any order of demolition of the wall of the temple building and it is also not an eviction order”.

“Tengku Adnan misled the House but the question is, did he do so knowingly?

“If yes, it is contempt of the House and should be referred to the rights and privileges committee.

“If he did so unknowingly, he has to explain which officer misled him into believing there was a court order and what actions will be taken against that officer,” Sivarasa (right) said.

The lawyer, had acted on behalf of the temple in the application to be party to the Menara Hup Seng vs Kuala Lumpur mayor case.

Speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby, he said this was important as Malaysians needed to know that cabinet ministers were acting on facts.

He added that it would also stop the speaker from repeating things that are not true, leading to the suspension of Sivarasa and Batu Gajah MP G Sivakumar from the House last week.

They were suspended after trying to raise the matter, as Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia said that the issue has already by raised by Padang Serai MP N Surendran.

Surendran is currently serving a six month suspension for calling the Speaker biased over the same issue.

'Judge repeatedly said no demolition order'

Meanwhile, Sivarasa emphasised that the May 30 written judgement had stated at least three times that there is no such demolition order.

"It is important to stress that the terms of the order of court dated July 5, 2012 did not make any order of demolition of the wall of the temple building although there was this original prayer...for the temple building...," the judgement reads further.

The May 30 judgement was on the temple's application to be a party to the case between Menara Hup Seng Sdn Bhd and the Kuala Lumpur mayor.

The temple had asked to be party to the case brought by Hup Seng as it was concerned that the July 5, 2012 order would mean the temple would be demolished without notice.

Judge VT Singham said the court would have included the temple as a party if there was indeed a demolition order, but there was not.

The July 5, 2012 order states that the Kuala Lumpur mayor must within seven days of judgement, provide Hup Seng with unlimited access to the temple in order to build a pathway as required in the Menara Hup Seng building plan.

The perimeter wall, annexe building and caretaker quarters of the temple, located in downtown Jalan P Ramlee, were demolished without giving temple management prior notice last month.

The main hall and the gopuram remains, while the government claims it is in talks with Hup Seng to beautify the temple.

The move was highly criticised across the political divide.

Responding to criticism, Tengku Adnan had insisted that the temple, founded about 100 years ago, is a shrine and not a temple.