The mud-slinging between the Penang Hindu Endowment Board (HEB) and Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia over the Batu Lanchang Hindu cemetery has come to a climax, with HEB calling Hindraf “a slave of Umno and Barisan Nasional”,
HEB chairman Dr P. Ramasamy said the board was willing to work with any NGO except Hindraf on the cemetery issue.
“Do not play politics with us and stoop so low as to accuse the chief minister (Lim Guan Eng) and me of sending thugs to intimidate people,” he said at the HEB office today.
Ramasamy, who is deputy chief minister II, was referring to an accusation by Hindraf national adviser N. Ganesan.
Ganesan said that Ramasamy and Lim had sent thugs to disrupt a meeting attended by several Indian NGOs on November 30 to discuss the cemetery issue. Ganesan lodged a police report and called a press conference on the incident on December 4.
Ramasamy alleged that the people who disrupted the meeting were “goons masquerading as thugs to intimidate people”.
Ramasamy also said he and Lim will pursue their suit against Ganesan and English daily New Straits Times over the allegation. His unhappiness with Hindraf stemmed from the Batu Lanchang Indian cemetery and crematorium which were was poorly managed by its previous three caretakers.
The crematorium’s incinerator also broke down, leaving Hindus on the island with no place to cremate their dead for six months. – December 19, 2013.