Five Pakatan Rakyat representatives who visited the location of a demolished Hindu shrine in Batu Tiga yesterday agreed that the demolition was wrongfully done and in breach of state government policy.
The 2,000 sq ft shrine beside Persiaran Kerjaya was flattened by the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) in an operation last Thursday, sparking uproar among shrine’s committee members and followers.
Subang MP R Sivarasa, Kelana Jaya MP Loh Gwo-Burne, Kapar MP S Manickavasagam, Sri Setia assemblyman Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and two MPSJ councillors all claimed they did not know of the operation beforehand.
Sivarasa said the state had in 2009 pledged to not demolish any place of worship of non-Muslims.
“Local councils must inform the state exco if they want to do so,” he told the temple committee members.
He said he would contact the state exco members to demand for an explanation.
He added that MBSA also failed to conduct the demolition according to due process, as no notice was issued beforehand and many statues of gods were broken without respect.
Loh hit out at MBSA and asked the officials responsible for the action to be accountable.
In his fiery speech, he said the shrine was demolished once in 2009, which was already a breach of state policy.
“Now this has happened again. Who is to say this will not happen in the future?” he said.
He urged the authorities to take the right action.
“Somebody has done it, somebody has to pay [for the damage to the temple],” he said.
The 25-year-old shrine was built when the entire Persiaran Kerjaya was an estate, with workers staying in the area. The authorities, however, have recorded the land as a garbage reserve land.
Shrine committee secretary A. Manamohan did not seem to accept the Pakatan representatives’ explanation in full, and demanded an apology from the authorities.
“We want the authorities to suspend the culprit behind this demolition,” he told Komunitikini.
“We also want undertaking from them to not disturb our shrine again,”
He said the committee would rebuild the shrine immediately regardless of the authorities’ stand on the matter.
Meanwhile, Selangor Menteri Besar, Khalid Ibrahim, when asked about the demolition, said the building was a “shrine but not a temple”.
He did not elaborate further, but Komunitikini was made to understand that the state government’s undertaking in 2009 on houses of worship only involves temples and churches.
A reliable source in the MBSA also told Komunitikini that the shrine gathered followers who came to seek lottery numbers, causing disturbance to residents in the surrounding area and therefore, the demolition was carried out.
