A bus load of 40 Taoist devotees sent memorandums to Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Mansor, his deputy Loga Bala Mohan and KL Mayor Mohd Amin Nordin And Aziz, urging them to discuss the issue with the developer that bought the land where the temple is currently situated.
MCA Youth chief Tan Kok Eng said the developer had so far refused to meet up with temple committee members.
“We hope that City Hall can help us,” he said.
The group’s lawyer P Uthayakumar said the memorandum was to seek an immediate meeting with the mayor, former deputy home minister Tan Chai Ho, the 1,000 devotees of the Taoist Hock Sui Tong temple and the developer Kepong Development Sdn Bhd.
“Some 526 squatters who lived on the land were relocated to a nearby low-cost flat. Why not the temple? It has been there since before Merdeka,” said Uthayakumar.
Citing their constitutional right to freedom of religion, the group has asked Kepong Development to relocate the temple to another location, instead of demolishing it.
“It is a public interest matter as it touches on the sensitivity of the religion and community,” the memorandum read.
Resident Ng Chu Yok, 62, said the temple had been there since before she was born. Four generations of her family have offered prayers at the temple.
“This temple may be a small wooden structure but it is a big deal to the Taoist community in Kepong,” she said.
The group also staged a protest outside the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex in December when they applied to name Tan and 168 temple devotees as defendants in a suit filed by Kepong Development, which is seeking to demolish the temple. The suit currently named the temple’s priest, Ng Ah Sang, as the defendant.
The Hock Sui Tong temple was erected more than 63 years ago and is a place of worship for over 1,000 devotees.