MIC president Tan Sri SA Vigneswaran commended the Government for allowing the Hindus to celebrate Thaipusam under flexible conditions this year.
There was no real celebration last year, but this year the Government had allowed the Hindus to celebrate with strict SOPs in place.
While Vigneswaran thanked the Government for allowing the Hindus to celebrate Thaipusam, his deputy Datuk Seri M. Saravanan had a different view.
He was unhappy that the Government had encroached on the rights of Hindus by imposing conditions that went against the religious concerns of the Hindus in the country.
In fact, in his speech, he urged devotees to come out in numbers to mark the religious occasion.
It was this speech (or parts of it) that had gone viral, leading to some people saying that Saravanan did not respect the Government’s Thaipusam SOPs.
I think that Vigneswaran went overboard in praising the Government for allowing the religious festival.
While there was general consensus that the Thaipusam celebrations had to be subdued given the COVID-19 pandemic, there were simply too many restrictions.
The SOPs were just too tight and inflexible to allow some degree of religious freedom for Hindus to mark the occasion.
In Penang, despite the fact that Thaipusam was marked with adherence to the SOPs, there was an uneasy feeling, alongside some anger that the SOPs were too restrictive on the religious freedom of Hindus.
However, it is important to view the occasion in the broader context of the non-existent movement control order (MCO).
Since the free and unrestricted movement of the people are allowed, why is the focus only on Thaipusam?
We have, in the past few months, seen the unrestricted movement of people to shopping centres, restaurants and other public places so why is it necessary to come up with the strict and uncompromising SOPs for Thaipusam?
It is this comparison that had angered and infuriated devotees visiting temples the day before and on Thaipusam day itself.
Why were conditions imposed on Hindus and not on others?
This is as though Thaipusam gatherings had a greater propensity for the spread of the coronavirus than other gatherings.
What’s worse, the SOPs were uncritically applied on temples of different sizes and in different areas.
Temples with large land areas were imposed with the same restrictions as temples with small land areas especially in allowing for the gatherings of devotees.
In other words, the SOPs were mechanically arrived at without the considerations of the specific nature of the temples.
Vigneswaran can be happy that Thaipusam was celebrated without any undue incident, but he should be careful in praising the Government too much.
It is the right of Hindus to celebrate Thaipusam without much interference from the Government.
The Government exists because of the people and not the other way around.
It is not that Government who gives rights, but it is there to protect the rights of its citizens.
I am in support of Saravanan for taking a dig at the authorities for the unthinking imposition of the Thaipusam SOPs.
In fact, some of the SOPs were unnecessary.
In some temples in Penang, there were more security personnel than devotees.
The temples were completely surrounded by the police, in addition to health and security officials.
In these temples especially in Batu Kawan, it appeared as though there was some kind of an emergency in force.
It is not necessary for Vigneswaran to butter up the Government; he should not mimic those in the Malaysian Hindu Sangam.
Rather, the Government should be criticised for restricting the rights of Hindus during Thaipusam.
Generally speaking, Indians have not been happy with the Government for many years.
Due to this disenchantment, MIC who is supposedly the official representative of Hindus in Malaysia, has lost ground among the Indians.
Vigneswaran’s praise of the Government for allowing the Hindus to celebrate Thaipusam is no praise at all.
I thought that MIC was beginning to regain some dignity among the Indian community, but this sycophancy on the part of Vigneswaran has returned the party to its doldrums. – Jan 19, 2022
Ramasamy Palanisamy is the state assemblyman for Perai and the Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
