Ramasamy attends annual festival of Bukit Mertajam Maruthuva Jadamuni Temple
COMMENT BY PROF DR P.RAMASAMY
FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER II, PULAU PINANG
I attended the annual festival of the Hindu temple (Maruthuva Jadamuni Alayam ) in front of the Bukit Mertajam hospital, Penang. Together with me were David Marshal, Satees Muniandy, Cikgu Segar and other Urimai members and supporters.
The temple has been targeted for criticisms on the grounds of its “illegality” by some Malay-Muslim groups. However, they conveniently forgot the historical and heritage nature of the temple.
There was a big crowd of devotees at the temple coming as far from Perak, Selangor and Negri Sembilan. Earlier, the police diffused the tense situation by talking with a Malay-Muslim vigilante group and the temple committee.
The Penang state government should step in to ensure that the historic and heritage temple has a rightful place in Bukit Mertajam. In India and Indonesia, certain historic religious places have been declared as national heritage.
In terms of preservation of historical places, Malaysia has much to learn from the experience of other countries such as Indonesia, India and others.
Surprisingly, the world famous and renowned historical site of Bujang Valley in the state of Kedah is yet to be rezoned as a heritage site.
Maybe, the Penang state government can seriously think of rendering the historical temple as a heritage site!
