Responding to A Kohilan Pillay, who criticised the move as being disrespectful of religions, Kasthuri said the Gerakan vice-president was being a “wet blanket”.
“Gerakan should stop being troublemakers in Penang by making unsubstantiated allegations against the Penang state government’s move to allocate state land for the purpose of building non-Muslim places of worship,” she said in a statement today.
She said Penangites and Malaysians deserve “a respectable, conducive place of worship” rather than being forced to use residential premises, commercial shoplots and buildings in factory zones.
“Does Kohilan Pillay want non-Muslim places of worship to continue to operate under trees or from shoplots?” the DAP Wanita publicity secretary asked.
Kohilan had on Friday taken the state to task for allocating the land beside the oxidation pond at Ampang Jajar in Butterworth for churches and temples, saying it is not only unsuitable but also disrespectful.
He said the 22-acre land was probably being offered after the “condo-loving developer friends” of the DAP had turned down an offer to develop the area.
The Star also reported that two religious-interest groups – The Penang Hindu Association and the Teong Guan Association – had expressed concern over the proximity of the land to the plant.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had a day earlier, announced the offer of the land facing the Prai River to those wanting to build places of worship. The site consists of 32 lots, varying from 6,000 sq ft to an acre.
Kasthuri noted that the state has also announced 500 car parks to be built there with utilities like electricity lines with street lights, water supply, sewerage system and telecommunication lines, to allow the area to be suitably used for places of worship.
She called on Gerakan to stop being “thorns in the flesh” when a positive initiative is put forward to ensure that the rights and the welfare of the people are well taken care of, particularly in this case.
She said Kohilan could not be further from the truth when he claimed the state government is “scoring brownie points” and being “insincere” in announcing the land allocation.
She said it showed it is actually Kohilan who is trying to score brownie points among his party peers and the Barisan Nasional coalition by making baseless criticisms against the state on the matter.