Santiago, who, along with several other Selangor elected representatives such as Xavier Jayakumar and R Sivarasa had been tasked by the Selangor government to negotiate with the Save Seafield taskforce, said they held a series of meetings with the temple leaders since last year to find a solution to the problem.
The meetings had taken place at the state secretary’s office, Santiago said, with the latest one held last week at the Parliament cafeteria, after which they briefed the current menteri besar.
“There is a lot of criticisms on social media that the Selangor government haven’t been proactive in resolving this problem. This is not true.
“The past and present MBs have been engaging with the task force. The Selangor government has been working silently, trying to find a solution with all stakeholders,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.
Santiago said he and a few others had looked at the consent judgment and also tried to talk to the developer, One City Development Sdn Bhd.
“The solution we put forward was the Midvalley solution, where the temple is part of the complex. That was one possible solution, co-existing with commercial development and it worked well in the case of Mid Valley.
“We proposed the idea to One City, as a way of moving forward. But, whenever we took up the issue with One City, they would say, we have a consent judgment, speak to our lawyers,” he claimed.
Four parties, through a consent judgment on March 11, 2014, at the Shah Alam High Court, agreed to the relocation of the temple and to return the vacant site to the owner, One City.
As part of the consent judgment, One City agreed to donate RM1.5 million for the construction of a new temple on one of two plots of land given by the company. After the temple gave up the rights to one of the two plots of land, One City gave it another RM1 million in compensation.
However, devotees have continued to resist efforts to relocate the temple, which was built in 1891.
Santiago said when the developer firm was under Malaysian control, they were still talking. However, once the company went under foreign ownership – Ayala Corporation, the largest conglomerate in the Philippines – there was no more talk.
Santiago said they discovered the company was under foreign ownership just a few months ago when the then Selangor MB Mohamed Azmin Ali had gotten in touch with the developer.
“What we were trying to propose was a solution where the winner does not take it all, and that they co-exist.
“I think because the developer is now under a foreign company, this company does not understand the sensitivity of the issue. They will always go back to the consent judgment,” he said, adding that while the consent judgment needed to be followed, it was quite problematic.
“The temple has historical significance”
Santiago said prior to this, the area had five huge Sime Darby rubber plantations, which later became oil palm plantations. And in their midst, Santiago said, there were about 16 temples.
All the temples, Santiago said, have since been demolished, and the workers evicted, leaving nothing to acknowledge the Indian workers who had worked there for centuries.
“This is why the temple is historically significant. A Malaysian developer would have understood the dynamics. But it is now foreign-owned, so they do not understand the dynamics.
“The lesson to be learnt from here is that local sensitivities have to be incorporated as part of the business plan. Not just corporate social responsibility.
“Otherwise, the mess from a few days ago would not have happened,” he said.
On whether the problem occurred after the Filipino conglomerate took over, Santiago said it became harder.
But he said the issue would be resolved soon, although he did not elaborate on the matter except that there were some teething issues being ironed out.
About 2am on Monday, two groups of people were involved in a fracas at the temple over the proposed relocation of the temple, resulting in several people getting injured and 18 cars and two motorcycles being torched.
Following the incident, police arrested 21 people to assist in investigations.
Early yesterday morning, further violence saw several vehicles along the roadside set ablaze. A Fire and Rescue Department vehicle was also damaged in the incident and a fireman was injured.