Comment by YB Prof Dr P.Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister II, Penang
I rarely agree with MIC on many matters.
But this time around I think that the party has taken the right decision to call for the resignation of the Kedah Menteri Besar, Muhammed Sanusi Md Nor.
MIC’s president S. Vigneswaran’s call for the resignation of Sanusi is both timely and appropriate.
However, it is still too early to say whether the party is coming out of its long self-imposed entrapment of servility or obsequiousness.
Sanusi having hurt the feelings of non-Muslims in general and Indians in particular has no option but to make an graceful exist.
In the last few months or so, Sanusi has proven beyond reasonable doubt that he is not only a racist but a religious extremist.
He would use all kinds of reasons to justify the destruction of Hindu temples, some more than hundred years old.
On the pretext of “lawful” demolition, the authorities have destroyed a century old Hindu temple in Alor Setar some months back to make way for a motorcycle park.
A few days back another Hindu temple in Kuala Kedah was demolished to make way for a futsal court.
Now what is the urgency for a motorcycle park or futsal court by destroying old Hindu temples.
Surely, the Kedah government has plenty of state land available for public purposes without destroying the temples.
Sanusi by his reckless actions in condoning the destruction of Hindu temples showed that he is a liability and burden to the Kedah PAS government.
He has certainly embarrassed the party’s top leadership by simply having little or no respect for non-Muslims in Kedah.
No right thinking decent PAS leaders would go the extent of denying financial assistance from tax payers money to Hindu temples.
Who is he to deny financial assistance to Hindu temples?
The funds at his disposal are from the tax payers not his personal. It is up to the PAS leadership to ascertain whether he should remain as the Menteri Besar of Kedah.
I think with these demolitions, Sanusi’s position as a Menteri Besar has become untenable.
Vigneswaran has challenged Sanusi to ban MIC, failing which he should resign. The MIC leader has said in public that Sanusi is an incompetent Menteri Besar as he has no respect for non-Muslims in the state.
He also hinted that if Sanusi desires he could even demolish the Hindu-Buddhist heritage structures built during the SriVijaya and Chola periods located in the Bujang Valley, Merbok, Kedah.
In doing so, he might even argue that structures were built without the “permission of the city or municipal councils”, yes, about few thousand years ago!
