The chief minister wants the port authorities to find another site for the demolished shrine.
PRAI:
The Penang government wants the port authorities to apologise to Hindus
for demolishing a 40-year-old Hindu shrine near the checkpoint of Prai
bulk cargo terminal.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng also demanded that the port landlord, the
Penang Port Commission (PPC), and operator Penang Port Sdn Bhd (PPSB)
find an alternate land to rebuild the demolished shrine.
He also wants the port authorities to bear the cost of rebuilding
shrine, Sri Muniswarar Alayam, which was desecrated and flattened last
Friday morning.
The port Hindu workers, who came to pray, were shocked to find three
sacred spears and debris strewn some 15m from the shrine’s original
location.
Lim visited the site today and met the cargo terminal general manager, Abdul Halim Abdul Kader.
He was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister II and Prai assemblyman P
Ramasamy, state executive councillor and Bagan Jermal assemblyman Lim
Hock Seng and Bagan Dalam assemblyman A Tanasekharan.
Abdul Halim, who apparently ordered the demolition, explained to Lim
that the decision to tear down the shrine was made because many people
have been trespassing the fenced area.
He also told Lim that the shrine had posed danger to a nearby gas pipeline.
However, Lim told Abdul Halim that the port authorities should have been considerate to the Hindu workers.
He also held negotiations with the temple committee to reach an amicable solution.
“There is always a better way to resolve the problem,” Lim told
reporters later, adding that his government was always against any
indiscriminate demolition of places of worship.
Several port workers told Lim that the shrine was demolished without any prior notice.
They said that the shrine had been regularly patronised by port workers and dealers.
They said the devotees have written to the port authorities several
times to provide access to the shrine after its area was fenced off some
five years ago.
“However, our request was not entertained,” they said.
Signature campaign
They added that they opened a section of the fencing to create a path to the shrine to conduct their daily prayers.
They have now started a signature campaign among Hindu workers to pressure the port management to rebuild the shrine.
PPSB chairman Dr Hilmi Yahaya, who visited the site with several
Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders yesterday, was reported to have said that
the shrine would be rebuilt, probably on another suitable area.
PPC board member and MIC state acting chairman L Krishnan said the
board and Hilmi were innocent in the controversy as the shrine was
demolished without their knowledge.
“We were caught off guard,” he told FMT, adding that MIC had demanded
the port authorities to rebuild the shrine on a nearby new site.
Earlier, Tanasekharan said the port workers were also worried that
the port authorities would tear down another Hindu shrine located in
Bagan Dalam wharf, some 10km away.
He said the demolition of Sri Muniswarar Alayam should not have happened as it would stir Hindu religious sentiments.
He added that the port authorities should have negotiated with the shrine committee to reach an amicable solution.
“The authorities should have relocated and rebuilt the shrine before
demolishing the old one,” he said at his service centre in Butterworth.
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