Sad Experience of Puzhao Buddhist Vihara
On the 4 September, being an associate member of Yayasan Belia Buddhist Malaysia (YBBM), I received a copy of the latest Berita YBAM volume 119 from October 2007 to April 2008 from the Young Buddhist Association Malaysia (YBAM).
After going through the articles of Berita YBAM, I noticed two of the reports on pages 12 and 15 that interest me and I decided to check and study them deeply to ascertain the events and happenings written.
Upon reading the reports of the events, which involved the construction of the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara, I was gravely upset, saddened and disappointed, despite after 51 years of Merdeka on our nation, we were supposed to have a Malaysia which were to be for all Malaysians, but what I had found out is we were still restricted in terms of religious activities, movements and the construction of places of worship.
Then, I took a few seconds looking at the federal constitution which I had. Even though the religious freedom of non-muslims are guaranteed and enshrined in the federal constitution, there are still a lots of restrictions and the so-called bureaucracy structures in the government and local authorities in our country that prevent other religious activities, movements and construction of places of worship from being materialized for the benefits of our communities.
I would like to pay tribute to our brothers and sisters in the YBAM national council and the Johor state liaison committee who had strived very hard to ensure the construction of the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara completes for the benefits of the Buddhist communities residing in Johor state.
Despite YBAM’s building plan for Puzhao Buddhist Vihara being approved by the Majlis Daerah Kluang Utara on 18 December 1990 and later gained gazette at the federal level on 25 April 1991, the Johor state government later imposed conditions after conditions with no stop, which resulted to the continuous delay of the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara’s construction which also caused the construction cost to rise due to the fluctuation of the building material costs.
Situation became worst as the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara’s construction have had to obtain an endorsement from the Johor state security council which was required by a new enactment approved by the Johor state assembly at that time.
First of all, what security concern does that have to do with the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara’s construction? Why under the said new enactment at that time, Buddhist organizations have to seek endorsement from the Johor state security council, besides getting approval from the local authorities to construct places of worship or an association building? What kind of security concern does the Johor state government need to look into until 17 years when YBAM wanted to construct the vihara for benefit of our Buddhist devotees?
I supposed, those questions remained unanswered until today and I personally do not understand why we as Malaysians have to had these experiences all these so badly in our own multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation called Malaysia?
We Buddhist are Malaysians too and our citizenships are valid since birth and nobody can question that. Are our rights really enshrined in the federal constitution? Such continuous religious restrictions had hurt almost all Malaysians, especially we as Buddhist.
After going through the articles of Berita YBAM, I noticed two of the reports on pages 12 and 15 that interest me and I decided to check and study them deeply to ascertain the events and happenings written.
Upon reading the reports of the events, which involved the construction of the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara, I was gravely upset, saddened and disappointed, despite after 51 years of Merdeka on our nation, we were supposed to have a Malaysia which were to be for all Malaysians, but what I had found out is we were still restricted in terms of religious activities, movements and the construction of places of worship.
Then, I took a few seconds looking at the federal constitution which I had. Even though the religious freedom of non-muslims are guaranteed and enshrined in the federal constitution, there are still a lots of restrictions and the so-called bureaucracy structures in the government and local authorities in our country that prevent other religious activities, movements and construction of places of worship from being materialized for the benefits of our communities.
I would like to pay tribute to our brothers and sisters in the YBAM national council and the Johor state liaison committee who had strived very hard to ensure the construction of the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara completes for the benefits of the Buddhist communities residing in Johor state.
Despite YBAM’s building plan for Puzhao Buddhist Vihara being approved by the Majlis Daerah Kluang Utara on 18 December 1990 and later gained gazette at the federal level on 25 April 1991, the Johor state government later imposed conditions after conditions with no stop, which resulted to the continuous delay of the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara’s construction which also caused the construction cost to rise due to the fluctuation of the building material costs.
Situation became worst as the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara’s construction have had to obtain an endorsement from the Johor state security council which was required by a new enactment approved by the Johor state assembly at that time.
First of all, what security concern does that have to do with the Puzhao Buddhist Vihara’s construction? Why under the said new enactment at that time, Buddhist organizations have to seek endorsement from the Johor state security council, besides getting approval from the local authorities to construct places of worship or an association building? What kind of security concern does the Johor state government need to look into until 17 years when YBAM wanted to construct the vihara for benefit of our Buddhist devotees?
I supposed, those questions remained unanswered until today and I personally do not understand why we as Malaysians have to had these experiences all these so badly in our own multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation called Malaysia?
We Buddhist are Malaysians too and our citizenships are valid since birth and nobody can question that. Are our rights really enshrined in the federal constitution? Such continuous religious restrictions had hurt almost all Malaysians, especially we as Buddhist.
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