MIC’s Saravanan is right in criticising Thaipusam SOPs

 

From P Ramasamy

MIC president SA Vigneswaran commended the government for allowing Hindus to celebrate Thaipusam under flexible conditions.

There was no real celebration last year, but this year the government allowed the Hindus to celebrate with SOPs in place.

While Vigneswaran thanked the government for allowing the Hindus to celebrate Thaipusam, his deputy, M Saravanan, had a different view.

He was unhappy that the government had encroached on the rights of Hindus by imposing conditions on their celebration of Thaipusam.

In fact, in his speech, he urged devotees to come out in numbers to mark the religious occasion.

I think Vigneswaran went overboard in praising the government for allowing the religious festival.

While there was a general feeling that the Thaipusam celebration had to be subdued given the Covid-19 pandemic, there were too many restrictions.

The SOPs were too tight and inflexible to allow some degree of religious freedom for Hindus to mark the occasion.

It is the right of Hindus to celebrate Thaipusam without much interference from the government.

Government exists because of the people, not the other way around. It is not the government that gives people their rights. It is there to protect the rights of its citizens.

In Penang, although Thaipusam was marked with adherence to the SOPs, there was an uneasy feeling and sometimes anger that the SOPs were too restrictive on the religious freedom of Hindus.

It is important to see the celebration of Thaipusam in the broader context of the non-existence of the movement control order.

The unrestricted movement of people at shopping centres, restaurants and others is being allowed, so why was there a necessity for the strict and uncompromising SOPs for Thaipusam celebration?

It is this comparison that angered and infuriated devotees visiting temples the day before and on Thaipusam day itself.

Why were conditions imposed on Hindus and not on others?

Did the authorities think Thaipusam gatherings had a greater propensity to spread the Covid-19 virus than other gatherings?

Furthermore, the SOPs were uncritically applied on temples of all sizes and areas.

The same restrictions were imposed on temples with large land areas and temples with small land areas, especially in limiting the number of devotees who could gather.

In other words, the SOPs were mechanically arrived at without consideration for the specific nature of the temples.

I am in support of Saravanan for taking a dig at the authorities for their unthinking imposition of the SOPs for Thaipusam.

In fact, there was no necessity for some of the SOPs.

In some temples in Penang, there were more security personnel than devotees. The temples were completely surrounded by the police, health and security officials.

In these temples, especially in Batu Kawan (Penang), it appeared as though there was some kind of an emergency in force.

Vigneswaran is a leader who emerged from the rank and file. He can be happy that Thaipusam was celebrated without any undue incident, but he should be careful in praising the government too much.

There is no necessity for Vigneswaran to butter the government. He should not mimic those in the Malaysian Hindu Sangam and others.

The government should be criticised for restricting the rights of Hindus during Thaipusam.

Generally speaking, Indians have not been happy with the government for many years.

Due to this disenchantment, the MIC, supposedly the official representative of Indians, has lost ground in the community.

I thought the MIC was beginning to have some respect among the Indian community, but this sycophancy on the part of Vigneswaran has removed it. - FMT

P Ramasamy is a deputy chief minister of Penang and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.