By IANS
Kuala Lumpur : Following large-scale protests by ethnic Indians against the demolition of temples, the Malaysian government has asked Samy Vellu, a Malaysian Indian minister in the cabinet, to monitor all temples in the country to ensure that none are demolished without “thorough check and discussions”.
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi asked Vellu, the sole ethnic Indian cabinet minister who heads the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) party, to “continuously monitor” all the temples in the country and submit reports on their status to him.
Vellu, who is works minister, said Monday: “No temples, either legal or illegally built, will be demolished without a thorough check and discussion with the MIC.”
“As temples are sensitive matters, a new approach is necessary to resolve the problem and the MIC will take over this task completely,” said Vellu in a statement. The MIC, the largest political party of the ethnic Indians, is a component of the ruling coalition.
“I will scrutinise all matters concerning temples… to ensure that no temples are demolished in the future.”
One of the major issues raised during a massive rally by ethnic Indians on Nov 25 was the destruction of Hindu temples in this Muslim-majority country.
Indians, who make up about eight percent of Malaysia’s 27 million people, claim they are marginalized.
Vellu said that he would travel nationwide to report on the number of temples in the country and their problems.
“We will identify the illegally built temples first and check on their status. We want to know if there have been any moves or notices to demolish or relocate them,” he said. He said Prime Minister Badawi “specifically wanted” a list of all temples that are to be demolished.
If temples have to be demolished “suitable alternative sites must be allocated so that Hindus can continue to worship”, he said.
The government maintains that only temples built illegally on government land were demolished.
The ethnic Indian community has been in the news recently after the Malaysian police cracked down on the Nov 25 rally of more than 10,000 who were protesting against marginalisation of the community and also to support a $4 trillion lawsuit filed in London in August by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), a rights group demanding that Britain compensate Malaysian Indians for bringing their ancestors to the country as indentured labourers and exploiting them.