UNIVERSITI Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) should not give misleading information about the Sri Mahamariamman Hindu temple built on its land without approval.
For UKM’s information, the temple has been sitting on a piece of estate land that once belonged to Broom Estate in Bangi, Selangor long before the land was gazetted as belonging to the university.
It is incorrect and irresponsible for the university to say that the temple was built on its land without permission.
𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐘𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐀𝐍 𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐌𝐈
PENJELASAN BERHUBUNG ISU TULAR PEMBINAAN KUIL DI KAWASAN UKM.#UniversitiKebangsaanMalaysia#IlmuMutuBudi#UKM#UKMSharing pic.twitter.com/OKOwUI6lrN
— UKM (Malaysia) (@ukm_my) March 30, 2026
UKM was established in the 1970s with a “large piece of gazetted land under its ownership while the Sri Maha Mariamman temple – built sometime in the 1940s – was already in existence.
Setting the record straight
It is well good for UKM to liaise with the state authorities to allow the temple in the present place or to be shifted provided the temple committee and the Hindu community in the vicinity are agreeable.
I was a lecturer in UKM for 25 years. I knew of the existence of the temple and visited it on a few occasions.
My impression then was the existence of the temple in the nearby Broom estate. I never knew that estate land had been acquired for UKM.
Of all the public universities in the country, UKM has large land bank. It is pretty obvious that the temple had not encroached on the land belonging to UKM.
On the contrary, it was the state authorities who gazetted the land on which the temple was located to UKM. Therefore, the question of the temple encroaching on UKM’s land is fiction than reality.
Temples-on-wheel
My hope is that the UKM management is not riding on the notorious bandwagon of removing “illegal” Hindu temples in the country.
Those days when the white settlers roamed the Wild West of North America, the so-called Red Indian natives were pushed to one corner, their lands taken and reservations were created to contain them.
This prompted a Sioux elder to ask in an interview in the late 19th century would it not be better for the whites to put the native Indians on wheels so that they could be moved wherever the whites wanted them to go.
It is in the same light, that similar argument could be made against the Hindu temples. Literally overnight, the temples became “illegal” and need to be re-located.
Wouldn’t it wise for the government to put Hindu temples on wheels so that they could be moved at its whims and fancies? – March 31, 2026
Former DAP stalwart and Penang deputy chief minister II Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is chairman of the United Rights of Malaysian Party (Urimai) interim council.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
