This follows allegations by the Penang Hindu Endowments Board (PHEB) that the Chettiars were sending donations to India.
“The allegations that public donations were repatriated are hence baseless and made without any evidence.
“For centuries, the trust had been handing out donations, but we have not been documenting them in the media,” a spokesperson for the Registered Trustees, Nattukottai Chettiar Temples, Penang said.
According to the accounts sighted, a total of RM345,500 had been given out since 2009 until Nov 25 last year.
The Chettiars had been in the spotlight, after the PHEB decided to launch a golden chariot, concurrently with the silver chariot.
The Chettiars had run the Thaipusam chariot for a total of 159 years — with the first 37 years using a woodern chariot, and the next 122 years in the silver chariot. The wooden chariot has since been donated to the Chettiar Temple in Medan, Indonesia.
The trustees of the temple, in a point-by-point rebuttal, said PHEB chairman P Ramasamy was given a chance to look at the Thaipusam accounts in mid-2015.
“Having showed him the Thaipusam accounts, we were left with the impression that he (Ramasamy) had been made fully aware of the position of the accounts.
“The Penang deputy chief minister ll informed the trustees that he was misinformed earlier about the public donation collected during the Silver Chariot procession and he will speak to the endowment board and advice them,” it said.
The Chettiars added it had also sent its annual audited accounts to relevant authorities, as required under Malaysian law.
According to the Chettiars, despite its benevolent intentions, the PHEB had rejected their donation of RM20,000 to the PHEB Education Fund in 2015.
It also said a RM40,000 donation to the Maha Mariamman Temple in Queen Street for its consecration last year was also received with some reservation.
The Maha Mariamman temple, managed by PHEB, had written back to the Chettiars, saying the donation was not acceptable “as it was done under a lot of publicity and press coverage”.
“However, the trustees are grateful that such monies (RM40,000) were never returned by the Queen Street temple, and we remain close to the temple,” the Chettiars said.
‘Not illegal to have foreigners in trust organisation’
Meanwhile, the trustees also debunked claims that it was illegal to have Indian nationals in the Penang Chettiars trust organisation.
“Some of the trustees may be Indian citizens. This is a position allowed under Malaysian law. But that does not change the fact that the trust is a Malaysian entity,” it said.
On a different note, the Chettiars said they have cooperated with the PHEB on the issue of the Golden Chariot, during recent talks with police.
They denied claims by PHEB that the Chettiars had “refused” to work together on the issue of the different chariot processions.
The Chettiars had only expressed their fears that another chariot added into the current Thaipusam procession would be chaotic.
It said the current silver chariot was already 1km long, adding anything else could be disruptive.
“This is a procession that consists not only of the Silver Chariot but also of about 80 peacock Kavadi bearers, troupes of temple musicians and singers,” the trustees said.
“Therefore, having two different chariots, heading to two different temples at the same time, is a situation that the PHEB chairman refuses to consider.
“The Thaipusam festival does not belong to one single community and the Penang Chettiars Trust has never suggested the same.”
Thaipusam is on Thursday, Feb 9, with said chariots leaving on their 10km journey from downtown George Town to Jalan Kebun Bunga on the eve (Wednesday night).
