Pakatan govt must act against Batu Cave’s Nadarajah

(Berita Daily) – Shocking! That best describes the arrogance of the Batu Caves temple management committee.

The recent disclosure and admission made boldly by the temple chairman R Nadarajah that many structures erected by the temple have no prior approval from the local council, namely the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS), have raised many questions.

The public has the right to know as to how and why the Batu Caves temple management and the chairman been given such liberties to do as they wished within the temple grounds.

It is astonishing that even the MPS has confirmed that many buildings within the temple grounds have no council approval, for example the shop lots, information counter, world-famous huge Murugan statue, to name some.

Nadarajah has the gall to take credit for all that has been done illegally by saying: ”I built all these for the benefit of the people. Now there are lots of tourists coming. They (MPS) can take action against me, they can demolish it as well. Even the statue that is internationally recognised does not have approval,” as quoted by an online news portal.

His statements reeks of blowing his trumpet for having the guts to ignore existing laws, whether federal or local building laws that others have to follow strictly to get any structure built, renovated or modified.

On what basis has the MPS not taken legal action on the temple committee? It must be reminded that all buildings and attachments as such to the said plans of the building can only be erected upon the explicit approvals of various agencies.

By acknowledging that these structures have not been approved as they did not meet the requirements demanded by MPS, in itself is cause for not allowing any commercial or prayer activity to be carried out.

Imagine a huge fire or disaster strikes the place. There could be grave legal consequences to the victims there; especially insurance related laws among others.

Having these illegal structures within temple grounds do not mean that it is okay since it could ruffle the religious sentiments of the devotees if action is taken on the temple committee.

These are two separate issues. There is no religious element to justify breaking the laws that govern every individual or organisation of the country.

Is corruption involved?

The non-action of MPS has raised the possibility that there could also be an element of corruption in the minds of the people and has to be investigated by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission immediately.

Nadarajah himself has said that the MPS is free to take action against him and even demolish the illegal structures/buildings/statue.

If that is so, it points towards a challenge being thrown towards the local council, state government and even the Pakatan Harapan government.

Since he has said that he himself built it without the relevant approvals, then there should no be any delay in taking legal action expeditiously on the part of the government or even the MACC.

As stressed, all these have nothing to do with the religion or the main temple (hall of prayer per se) and as such it will not be an issue on that premise.

This is a crystal clear case of an individual who has admitted and made a public declaration that he has violated the existing laws on his own accord and such is also proud to do so – nothing short of telling the local and federal government that he has set precedence for other temples, organisations and individuals that it is perfectly fine to break the laws.

If MPS and Pakatan government ignores the blatant law-breaking of Nadarajah, then it will only go on to show that they too are no different than what Barisan Nasional was.

There should be no compromise on this issue.

Will MPS allow for others to do as they wished to their buildings, or erect structures in the name of tourism/prayers? It is time to act and not do small talk.