Good morning fellow countrymen.

The fury that I'm feeling is very immense, knowing that the state government has no respect towards the sentiments and the history of temples built by our ancestors over a century ago.

Sri Madurai Veeran shrine was built over a century ago, by Indian labour workers who toiled greatly to build railway track from Butterworth up to the northern side of Malaya in the early 1900's. The current caretaker, Mr. Vijay Mohen was the descendant of one of the labourers who built the temple. According to Mr. Vijay, the site for the temple was gifted by the Malayan Railways Co as an act of gratitude, to respect the belief of the Indian workers to have a guardian deity who protects them while they were working on the train tracks.

For decades, worshippers from all around the state of Kedah comes to offer prayers to the guardian deity, Madurai Veeran. The sentiment of having a guardian deity which takes care of the community is still strong even up until today.

The only problem the temple faced was the rejection of the Registrar of Societies to register the temple, as they claimed it was too small. Similar to this shrine, they are thousands of other significant shrines across the country, which is also small in size, but holds an important place in the hearts of thousands of Indians in that particular locality.

Despite that, the temple was officially registered under the Malaysian Hindu Sangam, which recognizes the existence of the temple.

Mr. Vijay, the caretaker of the shrine started facing problems last year when the local city council, MBAS issued a notice saying that the shrine was illegally built on road reserve land, and claimed that the location of the shrine is obstructing the traffic flow. Mr. Vijay had tried repeatedly to meet the relevant authority, especially the mayor of Alor Setar, to appeal against the decision to demolish the shrine, but he was never even given a chance to meet anyone. Writing letters to MBAS was also of no use, since there was no reply from anyone. Not to mention that their request for another piece of land nearby for the temple was neglected as well.

Later on, Mr. Vijay was ordered by the Menteri Besar to relocate within 1 month. Shockingly, a letter delivered by MBAS gave them 10 days time to remove the temple. To avoid any unforeseen event, the temple committee went ahead to file a stay order, to prevent the MBAS from demolishing the temple. Unfortunately, on the 9th of July 2020, at 2 AM, the MBAS proceeded to demolish the temple during the odd hours. Plus, the desecration of the temple, which includes the confiscation of the statue of the Deity, had infuriated many.

A temple which holds numerous sentimental values, and a symbol of belief, was utterly disrespected by the local and state government. The caretaker's pleas were ignored, and the authorities had acted unconsiderably and insensitive against the interests of the Indian community, especially in Alor Star.

As a person who frequently prays there as well, the claim stating that the temple was an obstruction to the traffic flow is false. Personally, I believe there's more than what they claim as a ground for the demolition of the shrine. I wonder if the local government are willing to negotiate at all.

Relocating a temple is not as easy as ABC. There's various religious 'SOPs' to follow as well. To give such short amount of time with no viable alternative is purely vile.

I wonder why people can go around claiming that discrimination against Indians aren't true? Isn't this act of ignorance is utterly disrespectful? Does the government even care about the needs of the Indian community? We don't need your pompous privilege, if you can't even respect the wishes of our fellow citizens to practice their way of worship, which was deeply embedded in Article 11 of the Federal Constitution. I guess the special officer in charge of the Kedah's Indians Affairs is not doing his job properly?

Let's seek justice not only for this single desecrated temple, but also thousands of other temples which were desecrated without us knowing it. Spread the awareness. Together, we'll make the relevant authority accountable for this unfair and insensitive action.