The recent misconceptions about the interference of the Hindu Endowments Board in Hindu festivals and ceremonies have been brought into focus.

There seems to be continuing widespread ignorance and misunderstanding of what and why the Muslim and Hindu Endowments Ordinance, Chapter 175 (S.S. Ordinance) was legislated in 1905 by the Straits Settlement British Government.

The SS Ordinance was repealed vide a Proclamation in 1967 in so far as if affects the Muslim endowments and hence the Ordinance from then was known as the ‘Hindu Endowments Ordinance, Chapter 175'.

The said repeal resulted in the vesting of all the Muslim endowments under the scope of the Penang Muslim Law Enactment of 1959.

In the said Ordinance "endowments" mean any endowment in land or money given or to be given for the support of any Hindu shrine or school or for other Hindu pious, religious, charitable or beneficial purposes.

Pursuant to Section 3 (1), the governor appoints the board to manage, administer and supervise the Hindu endowments. Section 4 empowers the governor to order any endowment to be managed by the said board.

The following are the Hindu endowments vested in the board:

1. Waterfall and Queen Street Temples;

2. Sri Kunji Bihari Temple;

3. Ranee Dhoby Ghaut Temple;

4. Sri Maha Mariamman ButterworthTemple; and

5. Lot 161(iii) Town Section 3 North East District, Penang (for burial ceremonies).

The above endowments own properties such as shop houses, vast land banks situated on Penang island as well as in Province Wellesley.

The board of commissioners

The board should manage, administer and supervise the said Hindu endowments among others to appoint and remove employees, collect and defray the incomes, and should keep accounts and submit the annual accounts to the state secretary pertaining to the endowments under it.

The board being a statutory body is required to table its accounts under the Statutory Bodies Act, 1980 via federal minister in Parliament annually.

The board can examine the accounts of any Hindu trustee (not vested in it) under oath and impose penalties for non compliance, etc; and also give opinion and advice to any trustee managing the Hindu trusts in Penang.

Under Section 6 of the Ordinance, the board appoints a management committee for each endowment comprising persons applicable to the endowment with the officer of the government, being the member of the board.

The question of collections of donations or any religious fees for the purposes of upkeep and maintenance of the temples including the building of temples or running of Hindu affairs of any shrine or temple is not the function of the board.

The powers of the board would be in a large measure regulatory, administrative and judicial in respect of the Hindu endowments.

The chairman, the ex-officio secretary being the officer of the government.

The Collector of Land Revenue, Penang and later Director of Land and Mines, Penang, being the most senior officer of the state government (PTD service) had served as a commissioner and its ex-officio secretary. The main objective was to keep the board within its scope of managing its properties and keep the board under the direct purview of the state secretary.

The said ex-officio secretary, being the officer of the government managed the board’s affairs impartially and with high degree of trusts entrusted to hold all the funds, gold ornaments and precious property of the temples and would carry out the functions without fear or favour in the event of pressure by any quarter.

For continuity of the board’s functions, the government had provided two administrative civil service officers with a bill collector.

Since the powers of the board involves administration, management and superintendence of the Hindu Endowments and not involving the Hindu affairs of each endowment members, the chairman of the board had been drawn from senior government civil service retirees (the late Mr D Baboo passed away in 1975, Datuk A S Maniam, a retired Assistant Registrar of Societies with the late Datuk K Ponnampalam a retired Director of Welfare services, Penang as vice chairman).

Penang MIC chief "forcibly" took over the chairmanship of the board after 1975 and remained untoppled till 1989.

As a result of continuous attacks and the barrage of onslaughts in the press, the then chief minister Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu revamped the board as a result of recommendations of a revamp committee and the new board rules were enforced on March 1, 1989.

The state authority then appointed 11 commissioners to the revamped board (avoiding politicians) with persons having special skills or qualifications relevant to the administration of the properties of the endowments. A S Maniam was elected as chairman at a board meeting in May 1989.

Political interference and abuses

Due to "political pressure" Maniam gave way in 1995 to Datuk Rajapathy who was then a state executive councillor of Penang who also happened to be the Penang MIC chief.

The officer of the government who shall be the ex-officio secretary is currently drawn from the Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang. In the past, the ex-officio secretaryship had been kept within the Malaysian civil service who also report to the state secretary and now this porfolio has been conveniently "downgraded" since this officer professes the Hindu faith. In my opinion the board could now be "manipulative " in their overzealous efforts in respect of Hindu affairs.

The vice- chairman of the board in the Star and in Malaysiakini recently said that the board has a "legal obligation to ensure that religious festivals are celebrated in correct and orderly manner".

The board is thus abusing its powers under the Ordinance and pursuant to Article 11 of our Federal Constitution?

Festivals such as Thaipusam, Chitraparuvam, Navarathri, Masimagham and Vijayadasami are not the legal obligations nor functions of the board nor its management committees and any fund in the form of "donations" and "religious" fees for any upkeep, maintenance and building of the temples is not the legal fund under the Ordinance. In the past, way back in1935 the waterfront workers formed the Hindu Mahajana Sangam and their members had been involved in the formation, maintenance, renovations of both the Hill Top Balathandayuthapani Temple and Queen Street Sri Maha Mariamman Temples.

The said Sangam organised and celebrated the Ekadasi at the Krishna temple under the endowments known as Sri Kunji Bihari Temple.

The Ordinance is an existing law pursuant to Article 4 of the Federal Constitution and hence is not an Act of Parliament? See The Star recently. The board’s vice-chairman said that the board has jurisdictions "to regulate thaneer panthals and installing a centralised system to control the type of music for Thaipusam."

The board has misled the Hindu public and are encroaching into Hindu festivals, ceremonies and Hindu affairs in shrines or temples situated in the properties of endowments.

In order to assist the Penang Hindus, the Chief Minister of Penang should review the said Ordinance to incorporate provisions to establish education fund, personal development programmes, single mothers, poor and old age senior beneficial programmes and create more employment opportunities for the Indians in the board and accordingly "re look" into the proposals and recommendations for the appointment of board commissioners submitted by the ad hoc revamp committee of 1989 for which I can be of some help, if necessary.

And please direct the board to confine itself to the proper administration of the RM100 million worth of properties than bother about their "illegal" encroachment of Hindu affairs of the endowments.

I wish to state herein as a result of numerous calls and complaints received from the Hindu public by the United Hindu Religious Council, Penang that your government has been appointing unscrupulous professionals and politicians whose only aim is to warm their seats and obtain personal gains, glorifications and state awards in the charitable and sacred arena (place of worship) where one should become meek, humble and sober.

Instead the board should give way to form a Hindu registered society for each respective endowment to manage the Hindu festivals and ceremonies so that the members could be made accountable to the Hindu public for all building funds and so forth raised.

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SUPPAYAH KRISHNAN is a Chartered Secretary and a former Assistant Secretary of the Hindu Endowments Board, Penang (1970 to 1993) and currently the Deputy President of the United Hindu Religious Council, Penang (UHRC)