The mess that is the Seafield temple issue

THE scuffles at the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in USJ25 have brought out the very worst in Malaysians.

What began as a humdrum issue of land acquisition and the relocation of a place of worship has erupted into a theatre of misinformation, race-baiting, conspiracy theories, and violence that has left property destroyed, communities broken, people injured – and one fireman fighting for his life.

As the drama develops and more conflicting stories and theories pop in to lend to the confusion, I think it is important for us to take a step back to try and piece together what exactly happened, and why things are playing out the way they are.

Contrary to claims by the temple leadership that it has been in Seafield for over 100 years, this temple was actually built in 1981. In 2007, the land the temple is on was purchased by One City Development, which had plans to develop the land.

After a legal tussle, the temple leadership agreed to relocate to a one-acre plot of land in USJ23, in July 2014.

One City Development gave the committee a RM1.5mil donation and built the facilities for the new temple in USJ23, about three kilometres from the original site. MCT Bhd, whose office was smashed up earlier this week, was the owner of One City Development but sold it off in December 2017.

This is where the facts go, as far as I can prove. The internal dynamics of the temple following this decision is unclear.

What is clear, however, is that there seems to be a rift between camps that support the relocation and those that do not, based on interactions between the temple’s core committee members on social media.

Accusations have been thrown over an apparent coup d’état of the temple’s top leadership by disgraced former members who are now running the place of worship, and conspiracy theories of hidden hands trying to create disharmony in the temple for ulterior motives.

Members of the temple committee did not respond to interview requests.

This has spun into national news, with unnamed people being quoted in the press about the developer hiring thugs of a different race to smash up the temple and how even authorities were in on the whole game to spread disharmony in the community – leading to some of them being attacked by the mob.

Politicians and online commentators have taken these speculations and ran with it, leaving police and security forces to handle the riots that ensued.

While it is fun to indulge in conspiracy theories of how this temple is now suddenly the hot proxy war of higher powers, my experience in media has taught me that people have an overblown sense of agency and prefer to assign blame than to take a long hard look in the mirror.

From the brief history lesson of Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, there are two things that I can conclude: 1) It was all systems go on the temple relocation and the deal with the developer; and 2) There clearly is internal politics going on inside the temple.

It is very clear that this internal politics has spilled out into the mess that we have today.

It is shocking to see how an internal conflict can so easily be assigned to a massive racial conspiracy by the committee with no evidence, and how a sensitive subject as that – despite every statement from the cops saying otherwise – can be treated with such carelessness with misinformation and race-stoking by online commentators.

It’s almost as if people want to be angry and divided.

So where does that leave us now?

It’s hard to say, since the state of things is still ongoing. The important thing is for the authorities to de-escalate tensions, regardless of how and where they are being manufactured.

The million-ringgit question now is, how can you – the level-headed Malaysian – help in that de-escalation?

As hard is it may be, I think it’s important for people to not buy into the whirlwind emotion of the whole thing, to not believe sinister plots and conspiracy theories wholly, to search out facts from reliable sources, and to correct the misinformation.

Keep calm, carry on.

Nicholas Cheng is a former Malaysian journalist. He was a US Daniel Pearl media fellow and a Chevening scholar. He aims to write about what young people think about 'New Malaysia'. He can be reached at:
Twitter: @nichocheng
Email: [e-mail]