Former don shows who’s the boss

Ploughing ahead: Dr Ramasamy (left) joining other devotees in pulling the golden chariot during its 3km trial run a week before Thaipusam.

SOME years ago, The Star carried a Valentine’s Day story of a man who proposed to his girlfriend at a hospital car park.

He was holding a pink placard with stickers of Cupid and hearts and the all important question “Will you marry me?”

The man was a British-trained engineer and the woman, a medical graduate, was doing her housemanship at the hospital. Both were Tamils.

The next day, the father of the woman called up and berated The Star for carrying the story and picture of the couple.

“We are Chettiars. I want my daughter to marry someone from my caste. I don’t know the man’s caste and I’m not keen to know it either. We are a small community,” he said.

The couple have since married and the man has even issued statements supporting the silver chariot operated by the Registered Trustees of the Nattukotai Chettiar Temples.

Non-Indians may not understand the fuss over the objection to a Hindu Tamil man marrying a Hindu Tamil woman but among the Indians, caste continues to hold sway, especially among Chettiars.

The Chettiars are businessmen and landowners. Some of them are moneylenders and they always considered themselves apart from other Tamils because of their financial clout.

In Penang, the Chettiars have been operating the silver chariot for 163 years. Murmurs were heard every now and then on why the Chettiars, being a super-minority group in the Indian community, were operating it.

There are only about 1,000 Chettiar families in Malaysia. Some families even go back to their ancestral hometown Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu, India, to look for brides or grooms.

There were claims that Tamil labourers operated the chariot in the early days, but the operation was taken over by Chettiars, who introduced a wooden chariot and then a silver one.

With the DAP taking over Penang in 2008, one Tamil from Sitiawan, Perak, assumed the post of Deputy Chief Minister II and started a whole new ballgame.

Dr P. Ramasamy, a socialist during his teaching days in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), was said to have been slighted by Chettiars during last year’s Thaipusam.

Apparently, he was not given a warm welcome at the Nattukotai Chettiar Temple, compared to the reception for his boss Lim Guan Eng, the Penang Chief Minister.

Dr Ramasamy, who took over as Penang Hindu Endowment Board chairman in 2010, launched a bitter campaign against the Chettiars over the lack of transparency in Thaipusam collections.

His decision to introduce the golden chariot was welcomed by many Tamils and Indian non-governmental organisations.

The Chettiars remained stoically silent and continued to run the chariot in their old trusted way, as no one had stood up against them publicly.

Dr Ramasamy fired salvos against the Chettiars on how they had allegedly exploited other Tamils and the other races in Malaysia and also in countries such as Myanmar.

He and his supporters took to social media, claiming that the Chettiars had repatriated “billions of ringgit” to Karaikudi all these years.

He alleged that four of the five trustees of the temple were Indian nationals and one was a permanent resident. Of the temple’s 50 members, 44 of them were Indian nationals.

Dr Ramasamy questioned how Indian nationals were allowed to collect donations under the country’s laws. He wanted the foreigners to be deported.

There was a hiccup over the golden chariot which was said to be used in Tamil Nadu only for processions within the temple grounds and not on the streets. But this was disputed by Dr Ramasamy’s camp.

Thanks to the chariot controversy, the former UKM don has emerged as the most powerful Indian leader in the party after the demise of Karpal Singh.

All this while, Dr Ramasamy was seen as a ‘yes man’ to Lim.

Now, he has a strong following in the party. Whenever someone posts negative comments about Dr Ramasamy or the golden chariot in the social media, many would come out to lambast the person, including via audio clips in WhatsApp, some laden with vulgar words.

A former NGO leader who issued a warning to Dr Ramasamy over the golden chariot was beaten up by several men. He has lodged several police reports that the incident was related to his criticisms of Dr Ramasamy and the golden chariot.

A university professor who is a Chettiar but not a member of the Nattukotai Chettiar Temple or a temple trustee had issued a statement that Chettiars are “deeply god-fearing”.

Assoc Prof Dr Angappan Regupathi said they live by the maxim that “siphoning The Lord’s property would lead to the destruction of one’s lineage.”

He said the donations received were used to fund the day-to-day running expenses of the temple, to organise temple activities and for charitable deeds.

What’s next for the Chettiars? There are moves to go a step further and stop the silver chariot procession altogether from next year.

The Chettiars have not been able to provide a list of the donations ploughed back to society except for the past few years.

Temple trustee Dr A. Narayanan said their forefathers had never kept records of previous donations as they felt it was unnecessary.

He said the more recent audited accounts were submitted to the Prime Minister’s Department.

Despite all the criticisms, the silver chariot dubbed the Chettiars’ chariot, as well as the golden chariot dubbed Ramasamy or DAP’s chariot, received tremendous response from devotees.

The board used its powers to ensure the golden chariot hits the streets first to collect archanai offerings from devotees.

It is claimed the golden chariot was pulled by volunteers slowly in a deliberate act to delay the silver chariot’s procession which started about two hours later, but this was denied by the board.

The silver chariot took nearly 21 hours to reach the Nattukotai Chettiar Temple in Jalan Kebun Bunga from Kovil Veedu in Penang Street, a distance of 6.5km, compared to about 12 to 13 hours in previous years.

But then again, the Thaipusam crowd this year was said to be bigger than last year’s as visitors got an opportunity to witness two magnificent chariots instead of one.

There were massive traffic jams due to the influx of outstation vehicles. The Thaipusam event has become an even bigger tourism draw.

The board has announced donations received from devotees would be counted on Friday at Komtar level five. Volunteers among NGOs have been invited to take part in the counting.

If Chettiars continue to hold on to their tradition that’s over a century old, of being opaque over funds and that only members of their caste can ride on the silver chariot to receive archanai offerings, then they will have themselves to blame for the erosion of support from the Indian community.

They must also halt the practice of auctioning the items and valuables donated by devotees among themselves within the confines of their Kovil Veedu premises.

The silver chariot procession is a tradition in Penang dating back to the 19th century. Any move by Dr Ramasamy to stop the silver chariot procession would have repercussions on the DAP.

The devotees have accepted the two chariots but they would not accept one chariot killing off the other.

The Thaipusam celebration in Penang this year was mocked as ‘DAP-Pusam’.

All is not well with the board too.

It is facing police investigations over three gold bars worth RM250,000 which went missing from its safe deposit box. Two police reports were lodged by former board secretary R. Siva Nathan and the board in 2013.

A police report was also lodged in 2009 against a board official for allegedly misappropriating RM65,000.

Dr Ramasamy has been accused by some of being an atheist but he has insisted that he is a Lord Murugan bakhtar (devotee).

The golden chariot issue may have come as a blessing to Dr Ramasamy’s waning political career, as he is said to be on his way out after serving two terms as an elected representative. He was dropped as a candidate for the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat in the last general election.

Now, there is bravado in his talk. He has earned a place in history with the golden chariot, but at the cost of splitting the Indian community.