PETALING JAYA: There are currently no plans to establish a national-level Hindu endowment board to regulate and resolve issues related to temples, says Senator K. Saraswathy.
The Deputy National Unity Minister said the government expects to collect more data on land issues involving temples through a multi-stakeholder committee led by the Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS).
The committee was able to handle matters related to Hindu temples without the need to set up a federal-level endowment board modelled after Penang’s.
“Whether it is managed by an endowment board or a committee, the issues are the same – the ownership of the land and problems within the temple administration,” she said when contacted.
“If these two things are settled then the endowment board would just be a regulatory body like the Registrar of Societies is with the non-endowment temples,” she added.
Calls for a federal-level endowment board for Hindu temples similar to the Penang Hindu Endowments Board (PHEB) were made following the recent land dispute involving the Dewi Sri Pathrakaliaman Temple in Kuala Lumpur.
“Now we have to identify how many temples are facing land issues. That means they are either on government land, private land or no man’s land,” Saraswathy said.
“A complete survey has to be undertaken but that is not going to be easy.”
She said temples facing land issues must come forward with “true” and “transparent facts”.
“We would expect temples having problems to come forward and then we are going to have the Hindu Lawyers Association study these documents,” she said.
“There were cases where land owners were willing to sell their property to some temples but the latter did not have the funds to purchase them.”
Depending on the situation and legal position of the temples, solutions could be worked out, including getting assistance to buy land or finding alternative land to relocate temples, she added.
“It is not going to be easy because we are dealing with cases on an ad hoc basis,” she said.
However, the committee would facilitate engagements between a temple’s management and the local authorities, she added.
The formation of the committee was among the resolutions passed during the ministry’s ‘Empowering Hindu Places of Worship as Community Centres’ conference held on Nov 30 last year.
The conference gathered more than 700 temple representatives and Hindu Religious Associations around the country.
