Shrines Of Trouble

IT'S a scenario that's become painfully familiar to most Indians over the last few years—riots between Hindus and Muslims over a temple/mosque site. The difference in the latest instance is that it took place in the normally serene Malaysian resort island of Penang, about 400 km northwest of Kuala Lumpur. The sporadic eight-day confrontation, which culminated on March 27, was played out away from the public eye. For, a strict censorship is imposed here on reporting racial or religious confrontation in this multi-racial, multi-religious nation of 20 million citizens. Few are thus aware of the feud between Hindus and Muslims of Indian origin over the conversion of a 50-year-old tree shrine into a full-fledged temple.

The tree-shrine borders a madrasa which was originally set up to cater to the Indian Muslim work permit holder and, of late, illegal migrants. But over the two decades or so of its existence, it evolved into a mosque as well. A mosque that is separated by a house from the proposed temple.

The Muslim objection to the Hindu temple, observers believe, is a follow-up to the bomb blasts in Kerala and Tamil Nadu early this year by an extremist Muslim group protesting against the Babri Masjid demolition.

When the problem first surfaced, the state government quickly came in with an alternate site for the temple a three-quarter-kilometer away, but fighting broke out between the Hindus and the Indian Muslims on March 26 and again on March 27.

According to eyewitnesses, about 1,500 Muslims marched on to the temple shouting religious slogans, when the anti-riot Federal Reserve Unit, replenished with reinforcements rushed in from other parts of the peninsula, stopped them. The Indian Hindus retaliated by demonstrating in front of chief minister Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon's office.

바카라 웹사이트Among the 150 people detained in connection with the rioting is an Indian Muslim priest with a video of the destruction of the Babri Masjid. The video appears to have been the last straw in the ongoing friction between the two communities. The proximity of the two shrines has been a bone of contention ever since the madrasa became a mosque about a decade-and-a-half ago, but had been kept within bounds by regular consultations between the two groups. However, incensed by the video of the Babri demolition, the Indian Muslims objected to the nadaswarams and other musical instruments that accompanied the moving of the idols at the tree shrine to the alternate site. Brickbatting by both sides followed and the consequent riot was stopped by police using tear gas.

A large quantity of Molotov cocktails, knives, machetes and bearing scrapers were recovered by the police. A quick check among hardware shops in Kuala Lumpur showed that many of these sharp instruments were not available for sale, especially near where Muslim communities live.

Though there is a surface calm, Penang is tense. At the disputed site, police patrols keep the peace. And Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor has threatened to impose curfew if the problem continues. The deities at the Hindu shrine have been shifted to the new site.

As religion is becoming increasingly associated with riots, the government plans to ban the Vesak celebrations that mark the birthday of the Gautam Buddha in May. And within the Chinese community there is much nervousness. For, in any racial confrontation, they become, as in Indonesia, the inevitable targets.

Religion is incidental in the larger political framework in which the Muslim Malay holds political power, the largely Buddhist, Confucianist or "free-thinking" Chinese the economic power, with the essentially Hindu Indian at the bottom of the totem pole, providing much the same menial roles for which the British had brought them to this country under terms that were no better than slavery. In a country where racial tensions lie dormant, an out-and-out religious riot or confrontation is a rarity. In Malaysia, racial tensions are real, religious tensions are not.

What has everyone on tenterhooks is the parallel with the Chinese-led 'hartal' in 1967 protesting against the removal of English as one of Malaysia's two official languages, and the ruling coalition's poor showing in elections 18 months later. Now, with the economy down, with fears of a Malay economic debacle, and with a general election likely soon, the fears of a larger conflagration remains in official calculations. For, post-riot instability brings in genuine fears of a loss of Malay political power.

Indians provide a political balance between the rival claims of the Chinese and the Malays in Penang—the only state in Malaysia where this is so. Hence, the present confrontation is not one the ruling National Front is happy with. In a parliamentary byelection in Teluk Intan near Kuala Lum-pur, the Indians, angry at an official ban on trade during a temple festival, had deserted the government in droves to elect an Opposition member of Parliament.

Could the BJP's coming to power in India have anything to do with all this? All that officials are prepared to say is that this is one more reason why the issue of a tree shrine became more confrontational than it need have. The problem, deputy prime minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, stresses, is related to "events overseas". Apparently, a BJP victory combined with the Babri Masjid video has aggravated tensions between Hindu and Muslim Indians, far from the shores of India, to create a religious problem in a country where it is a rarity.