Lawyer Files Court Notice To Stop Temple Demolitions. A Timely Judicial Test?
A lawyer has filed a notice of motion seeking to halt the demolition of temples in peninsular Malaysia. P. Uthayakumar filed the notice yesterday against the mentris besar and chief ministers of every state in the peninsula except Kelantan and Penang, as well as the mayors of city councils and presidents of other local authorities. In his application, he claimed that a nine-month study conducted by the Hindu Rights Action Force from Feb 22 to Nov 31 had found that 74 temples had been demolished or given notice of demolition, burned down or forced to be relocated next to sewage plants or had the statues of their deities removed by force.
The reason he has excluded Kelantan and Penang from his application is because none of these had happened in the two states.
He also named as respondents all the directors and administrators of all the Land and Mines Offices, the Housing and Local Government Ministry's secretary-general, the Federal Territories Minister, the Sentul police chief, the Inspector-General of Police, the Attorney-General, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and the Chief Secretary to the Government.
Uthayakumar filed the application at the registry of the High Court's criminal division here accompanied by counsel M. Manoharan.
Among other things, he is seeking to declare that all the respondents have no power to demolish or order the demolition of temples as well as statues of deities on the contention that such acts are criminal offences defined under the Penal Code.
The lawyer is also seeking to declare that notices issued under the Essential (Clearance of Squatters) Regulations 1969 are not applicable to Hindu temples.
He also wants an order to compel the relevant parties to gazette all Hindu temple grounds as reserve land and for the land titles to be issued to the temple trustees, similar to what is done for mosques and surau nationwide.
Uthayakumar said he had filed the application in his personal capacity on behalf of all Hindu temples and the two million Hindus in Malaysia. (TheStar)
***** It is a timely move to seek redress from the courts as the Barisan Nasional governments both at the center and the states cannot be depended upon to provide either a solution or an end to senseless demolitions. Wouldn't it have been better to have filed an application on behalf of all religious places of worship? As we have seen after the demolition of a Taoist temple at Bukit Mertajam and a surau at Kampung Berembang that no one is immune from the ravages of the demolishers.
Special note must be made that no such destruction of temples have taken place in PAS-ruled Kelantan. Either the PAS leadership is sensitive to the feelings of 'others' or there are too few temples there that merit demolition or both. While I personally feel that nothing much will come from this legal attempt, at least it will serve as a reminder to the government that the people aren't pleased. If the courts were to grant a stricture regarding demolitions it would be a great triumph for Uthayakumar and for religious freedom and democracy in our country. Let's wait and see.
Image - mattlogelin
posted by The Malaysian. at 12/19/2006 05:53:00 PM
3 Comments:
regarding your commentary, let me correct you a little bit and i urge you to be factual:
para 1 - you said the BN government either at the centre or at THE STATES - you are wrong as penang, the last time i checked is a bn led government
para 2 - your special note isnt valid as in penang too there are no "destruction" and thus the reference to being sensitive dosent apply.
It is my understanding that there are laws and regulations regarding the building/removal of places of worships and if the buildings of them were done in accordance with the laws/rules, there will not be any problem. It is unfortunate that the article did not highlight the reasons for those "destruction/removal" of the 72 places because only then we know why they were destroyed or removed!
we all know why the taoist temple and the kg beremban were destroyed dont we? are the rakyat going to allow lawlessness in the construction of places of worship? any tom dick and harry can build these structures anywhere without being governed? a mat will find a temple next to his house, a samy will find a church next to his house, an achong will find a mosque next to his.
your second para dosent speak well of your mind!
I am more interested to know what Samy Tol has to say. Probably he'll say "MIC is the only party that can solve Indian problem, we have talked to the PM about it and the PM has promised to look into the matter". Meanwhile the state governments will buldoze another couple of temples.
I think you're right anonymous. That is exactly what Mr Samy Vellu would say and the demolitions will continue unabated.
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