SHAH ALAM Sept 1st: N. Surendran suspects that a group of four or five men are threatening to beat him up if he continues to protest the demolition of Sri Muneswarar Kaliyaman Temple in Jalan P. Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur, today.
The Vice President of PKR said the incident occurred when a group of thugs came near him and proceeded to shove him roughly whilst he was attempting to negotiate with DBKL.
“I personally witnessed DBKL officers ‘ordering’ these thugs to threaten me. They said, ‘We don’t care if you are a YB (Yang Berhormat). We will beat you up if you don’t back off!'”
“Those thugs were plain-clothed like everyone else. I am certain they were not the police but thugs,” said the MP for Padang Serai.
Surendran, who is also a lawyer, intends to file a police report.
He said this incident reflects DBKL’s desperate scare tactics after succumbing to private companies, to a point that they are even willing to disregard religious sensitivities.
“DBKL should offer an opportunity to the temple’s management for negotiations, instead of ordering goons around to thrash people at will,” he said.
During the demolition, PKR leader S. Jayathas and the temple management representative were held at the Dang Wangi Police Headquarters.