The Save Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple task force protested outside Parliament today. Its leader S Ramaji led about 50 supporters to the Parliament gates, with police keeping a close watch. They later handed over a memorandum to officers from the Prime Minister’s Office.
This follows continued resistance from a faction at the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in USJ 25 which wants the temple to remain where it is despite agreeing to a consent judgment for its relocation in 2014.
The temple is set to relocate tomorrow as part of a win-win court solution involving the developer One City, the Selangor state government and two claimants to the temple management, K Chellappa and M Nagaraju.
Both Chellappa and Nagaraju, who were involved in a separate suit over the control of the temple management, agreed to hand back the land to One City after it agreed to donate RM1.5 million to build a new temple on one of two plots of land given to the temple by One City.
Chellappa has since been named as the rightful temple manager, but Nagaraju is refusing to abide by the 2014 High Court consent judgment to relocate.
In October, the temple’s relocation was postponed after a six-hour standoff until Nov 22, which is tomorrow.
In its memorandum to the prime minister today, which was sighted by FMT, Ramaji’s task force said the temple had been a community centre for Indians for some 146 years.
According to the memorandum, the Selangor government previously expressed interest in keeping the temple where it is. It claimed the Selangor menteri besar at the time in 1995 had said this.
“Therefore, we are of the opinion that the state government has the responsibility to fulfil its promises and take all steps to ensure the temple is retained where it is,” the memorandum, signed by Ramaji, read.
According to the memorandum, One City built a new temple but later tore it down, which is one reason why Ramaji and his group are unhappy with One City.
One City, Ramaji claimed, had contravened the consent judgment by providing “an inappropriate land” for the temple. This is because the land is said to have been gazetted for an elevated highway.
“Therefore, One City went into the consent agreement with ill intentions. One City then worked alongside the organisation led by Chellappa to move the temple… which is wrong and does not abide by the consent judgment,” Ramaji said in the memorandum.
“We consider this issue as something serious and which touches on the sensitivities of the Hindu religion.
“We would like to bring to your attention the temple demolition in 2007 in Padang Jawa by the Shah Alam City Council.
“This was one of the main reasons why the Pakatan Rakyat government was formed in 2008. We hope the government led by you will not make the same mistake,” he added.
He said One City intended to “commercialise and profit” from the land. The task force wants “balanced” development and points to the temple relocation resolution at Midvalley, where the development took place around the temple, as a model to follow.
Later, Ramaji told FMT that “all went well” today and two officers from the Prime Minister’s Office, including a special officer to de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong, received his task force’s memorandum after the protest.
“Since no one listened to our pleas, as a last resort, we have gone to the prime minister. We have very high hopes that he will look into this,” said Ramaji.
The temple is the only Hindu temple for the goddess Devi or Amman in the Subang Jaya vicinity.
Ramaji previously said the temple was also the only building remaining from Seafield’s estate-era, and demolishing it would be tantamount to getting rid of that history.