Some good news ahead for devotees, says minister

SHAH ALAM: Devotees of the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple will soon be able to heave a sigh of relief, as their problems revolving around the place of worship may soon be settled.

According to several sources in the know, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has instructed that the land be acquired from the developer for the temple to stay put.

He gave the instruction after Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department P. Waytha Moorthy and Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran called on him after visiting the temple on Tuesday.

“The federal and state govern- ments’ immediate concern is to secure the temple land in order to resolve the matter,” said a source.

He said there were several options in regard to the mechanism of acquiring the land and allowing the temple to remain there.

“But these options will be discussed later. For now, the main priority is to acquire the land from the developer,” said the source.

The source added that there was also a possibility of the federal government acquiring the land and handing it to the state government.

However, it is yet to be known whether the full ownership of the prime piece of land would be whol- ly given to the temple management, leased to them at a nominal rate or if the temple would merely be allowed to remain there.

The decision was conveyed by Waytha Moorthy to Selangor Mentri Besar Amirudin Shari at the state secretariat yesterday.

Following this, Amirudin issued a statement that he had a meeting with Waytha Moorthy, Deputy Rural Development Minister Sivarasa Rasiah, Sentosa assemblyman Gunaraj George and Kota Kemuning assemblyman V. Ganabatirau to discuss the matter.

The temple management and the developer had been locked in a wrangle for several years now, with the former refusing to move to the new location allocated for the temple.

The standoff between the two parties culminated in serious clashes earlier this week outside the temple premises.

Earlier in Kuala Lumpur, Kulasegaran said proposals to resolve the scuffle were presented to Dr Mahathir on Tuesday.

“(Waytha Moorthy and I) briefed him on what had happened and the proposals that we have.

“No firm conclusions were made, but the Cabinet has been briefed on the matter and the final conclusion will be made by the Cabinet.

“Obviously, I can just tell you there is good news,” he said, though he declined to elaborate further.

Meanwhile, state exco for Socioeconomic Empowerment, Development and Caring Government Committee V. Ganabatirau apologised to the house for his Facebook entry identifying a group of rioters as belonging to a particular religion.

His entry had raised the ire of many people who lambasted the Kota Kemuning assemblyman.

“After advice from several sectors, I have changed the term I used and would like to apologise,” he said.