Instead of targeting the state government over the Datuk Kong shrine issue, Lim said MCA should train their guns instead on Penang Opposition leader Jahara Hamid (Umno-Telok Ayer Tawar) and demand she retract a sensitive statement she made in the state assembly last Friday.
“One is ‘kutuking’ (condemning) us for not removing the shrine and another is now berating us for defending freedom of religion.
“The regrettable thing here is the issue should not have been brought up in the first place.
“MCA should be scolding Umno and not us. We were defending the shrine all the time,” he said in a press conference at the state assembly building here today.
Lim reiterated to Umno that the shrine or “tokong” had been built before World War 2 and that no individual had objected to its presence in the past 70 years.
He said this when responding to a statement by Ti Lian Ker of MCA, who called Lim a “coward” for defending the shrine as a “heritage” building rather than a place of worship.
“His (Lim’s) explanation is an act of cowardice at the expense of Taoists. Rather than tackling Jahara head-on by referring to the constitutional rights of minorities, Lim is finding some excuse or middle ground to appease Jahara,” Ti said in a hard-hitting statement today.
On Friday, Jahara told the state assembly that the placing of a shrine within the design of a park in Penang was too “Western” a concept and may likely upset and “confuse” Muslims, even if they knew not to pray there.
Jahara said that while she was not against places of worship in general, such a shrine should be located outside the confines of a public park.
“It might be conceptual, but it’s physical. They put up a shrine there. Heritage should not be mixed with religion,” Jahara argued.
Related story: Why put a ‘tokong’ in a public park?