MIPP president P Punithan also cited the pledge to establish Hindu endowments boards in all states, with the main function of managing endowments for the Hindu community such as money, land or property.
He said there was also the promise to only relocate Hindu temples or cemeteries after consulting local communities and ensuring an adequate alternative site was provided.
Criticising PH for failing to honour its promise, Punithan claimed that if it had done so the current contention over temples built without approval could have been prevented.
“These promises were not vague, but clearly stated in writing. However, to this day, a large part of these promises have yet to be fully implemented,” he said in a statement.
Punithan also said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s recent statement about local councils having the authority to “clean up” areas with temples built without legal approval had caused “deep anxiety and disappointment” among Hindu devotees.
“The Indian community isn’t demanding special privileges. We are just demanding justice, policy consistency, and for promises to be respected.”
Punithan was specifically referring to pledges made in PH’s Buku Harapan manifesto for GE14, not the coalition’s manifesto for the 2022 general election which resulted in Anwar being appointed prime minister.
Yesterday, Anwar said Putrajaya would no longer permit the construction of any house of worship that did not comply with regulatory requirements.
He said local councils had been given the authority to act on houses of worship built in breach of existing laws. However, he also said those who campaigned to demolish such temples were also in the wrong.
Last week, Klang MP V Ganabatirau said many Hindu temples across the country had yet to be gazetted as official places of worship, largely due to unresolved historical land administration problems.
He added that many of these sites were built in estate areas decades ago during the colonial and post-independence era, insisting that these were “not acts of lawlessness”.