Demand for temple land

During the public hearing on the MPSJ Draft Local Plan last month, the Buddhist community requested for 39 plots of land to be allocated for the building of Buddhist temples. For many Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, include those elected officials and local council officers, it may come as a shock that a religious group ask for "so many" plots of religious land.

It may looks like the Buddhists are very demanding but on the contrary it was the opposite. Basing on the Ministry of Housing and Local Government guidelines which stated that a plot of land for the building of a place of worship shall be allocated to every 2,600 adherents of the respective non-Muslim religion.

Based on the official census and projections by the state government there are about 220,000 Buddhists within the MPSJ administrative areas. Translate this figure in tandem to the guidelines for land for places of worship, the Buddhists community should be asking for 85 plots of land!

Another matter that might arise is the question whether the Buddhist community are capable of managing this number of religious land if the state government agrees to allocate it. No one will really know for sure what will happen next but one thing is definitely very clear. If not enough land are allocated, the Buddhist community will be facing the lack of space for the devotees in 20 to 30 years down the road.

Once the Local Plan has been gazetted and not enough land for temples was allocated because the Buddhist did not asked for it, the community will be left out in the cold in the local land development. It is better to demand for it now rather than not having enough space to cater to future needs of the people. If we don't ask for it now, our next generation might not have any land to ask. - Loka

RM1 for Religious Land

Those responsible for the management of places of worship should take the necessary action to ensure their land where the viharas, temples, churches or religious centres are erected are designated for religious purposes ( tanah untuk kegunaan rumah ibadat). This is especially important for centres which conducts regular religious service and sermons in their premises.



If the land use is still designated as commercial, residential, industrial or agriculture, the religious bodies will be paying quit rent rates based on the respective type of land usage which can be substantial if the size of the land is big. Land designated for religious purposes usually do not have to pay quit rent but just a nominal fee as low as one Ringgit per year for each lot.



For instance, the states of Selangor and Penang charges only a nominal fee of RM1 per year on land for places of worship. Therefore, the management of places of worship other than Islam should take the opportunity to convert their land to 'tanah kegunaan rumah ibadat" if there is a place of worship erected on that particular piece of land. The amount saves from the annual quit rent can be use for other religious education or welfare services. - Loka

University for dummies

Is the purpose of enrolment into an university is just to earn an academic qualification? Or is it a challenge and opportunity to equipped oneself with the necessary knowledge and other softskills to face the real world beyond the ivory tower upon graduation?

Is the trend of achieving academic excellence and scoring string of As in the school education system since the last 15 years or so already penetrated the universities? Are undergraduates getting too exam oriented and missed out on the golden opportunity to really experience life as a student in a university?

Participating in activities which do not contribute to their CPGA are just not in their daily calender. Maybe with the exception of those students who aspires to be in the political arena after graduation. But then not everybody wants to be a politician nowadays. It is just not on their list of " What I want to be when I grows up".

The much maligned occupation and political parties being regarded as one of the most corrupted certainly will not attract those undergraduates who are getting use of swearing at politicians whenever something went wrong in the country.

Do not get it wrong. Being active in campus activities does not means the person wants to be somebody in the political arena in the future. Getting involved in campus activities is to educate onselves to be more wholesome in their personal development and able to look at things with a bigger and clearer perspective.

Those who are prepared to accept the opportunity and challenge to stand on stage speaking to tens or hundreds or even thousands of people will find these experiences beneficial in the working world later. Most if not all the jobs in the world need us to open our mouth and talk to living persons. Maybe except the cemetery night shift caretaker.

Leadership skills can be derived from the books and the lecturers, theoritically. To really learn and practise it, it need oneself to experience it personally. The triumph, despair, glory and failure in crisis management and trouble-shooting need the actual participation of the person seeking the experience. It is through self experience that enables oneself to understand the strength and limitation within onself and to strive harder to be better the next time.

University is the place to pursuit academic excellence and also capacity building. There is no doubt about it. But does the authorities and undergraduates realized this? - Loka

Malaysian or Indonesian kids?

Recently I attended a district level Bahasa Malaysia speech contest for students of Chinese-medium primary schools ( SJKC) to provide moral support to my son who was representing his school.

After few contestants had presented their speech I realised something odd is happening. If I closed my eyes and just listen to the speeches, I would have thought there are some representatives from Indonesian schools!

Some of the contestants spoke with great confidence but the way they speaks sounds like those Indonesian that we meet at coffeeshops or construction sites or maids in Malaysian homes. The Malaysian Chinese kids are speaking like Indonesians!

I suspect these child speakers with Indonesian slang must have learned their language from their Indonesian maids at home. These Indonesian maids living under the same roof as their employers spend a substantial time with these kids since they were babies and it is not suprising if these kids are learning spoken Bahasa Indonesia rather than Bahasa Malaysia.

The only time that the kids are expected to learn and speak Bahasa Malaysia at school was during the class lessons for the language but it is only between three to four hours a week. The learning opportunity will be lesser if the Malay language teacher prefer to speak in English or Mandarin to their students.

The ongoing debate on the ill treatment of some Indonesian maids and the decision of the Indonesian government to stop sending their maids to Malaysia is not the only maids related issue that need attention. The tendency of the Malaysian kids especially those of Chinese descent speaking Bahasa Indonesia rather than Bahasa Malaysia is something the powers-that-be and other interested parties need to ponder when addressing the Indonesia maids issue.

Unknowingly, Malaysia is already been slowly colonized culturally by Indonesia from within the comfort and security of our own homes. Maybe it is a blessing in disguise if the Indonesian government decides to stop sending their women as maids to the Malaysian homes.

As for my son, he did not win the speech contest but neither did he speaks in Bahasa Indonesia. We do not have an Indonesian maid. - Loka

Buddhists speaks out in public hearing

After waiting for about one and a half years the public hearing on the MPSJ Draft Local Plan was finally held on the 15 and 22 June 2009 at the MPSJ complex.

The Buddhist community voice was heard during the hearing on 22 June when representatives from the Buddhist Committee on the MPSJ Draft Local Plan were present to speak out on the need to allocate more land for the building of Buddhist temples and building of a crematorium. The Buddhist community last year had submitted more than 4,000 individual objections/proposals on the above matters.

Present with the Buddhist delegation were the leaders of the Subang Jaya Buddhist Association, Serdang Buddhist Association, Kinrara Metta Buddhist Society, Fo Guang USJ Branch and Putra Heights Buddhist Society. Committee chairman Loka Ng and secretary Chua Teck Seong spoke on behalf of the Buddhists during the public hearing. - Loka




Report from The Star 23/6/2009

Reports by THO XIN YI and JADE CHAN at the Subang Jaya Draft Local Plan public hearing
THE Selangor state government will take steps to protect the interests of the landowner and the public with regards to the Subang Ria Park, said state local government, studies and research committee chairman Ronnie Liu.
“If we can convince the private company that owns the park land to keep most of it as a public amenity, we won’t say no to having a small part of it developed,” he said.
“It will be crazy for the state government to acquire it as the land cost for the 29.14ha park is estimated to be more than RM100mil.”
He said this at the second public hearing for the Subang Jaya Draft Local Plan yesterday which was chaired by state housing, building management and squatters committee chairman Iskandar Abdul Samad.
According to Iskandar, other issues raised during the hearing included the need for a crematorium and places of worship for non-Muslims, requests for a hospital, health clinics and activity centre for senior citizens, a link road between Taman Saujana Putra and Taman Lestari Putra as well as traffic congestion.
“Subang Jaya is a matured township but was planned without adequate amenities to cater to its large population,” said Liu.
“Most of the areas under the Subang Jaya Municipal Council’s (MPSJ) jurisdiction are already saturated with development, so the shortfalls have to be addressed and located in areas like Putra Heights.”
The Buddhist Committee for the MPSJ Draft Local Plan, an umbrella group representing several Buddhist associations under the MPSJ’s jurisdiction, had highlighted the need for an additional provision of 38 Buddhist temples to cater to the community, as only one piece of land in Puchong Utama had been allocated in the draft local plan for this purpose.
“We urge the MPSJ to adhere to the Selangor Town and Country Planning Department’s guidelines in relation to the provisions for building places of worship for non-Muslims, which is one place of worship for every 2,600 devotees or 5,000 residents.
“This is to cater to the spiritual and religious needs of the estimated 239,533 Buddhist devotees out of the 561,918 residents in the MPSJ area,” said committee chairman Loka Ng.
The projection is based on the 2008 demographic figures derived from the Selangor Economic Planning Unit and Department of Statistics.
On the next step, Iskandar said all the feedback and objections would be compiled over the next three months by the State Planning Department, which is the hearing’s secretariat or the hearing committee.
“The secretariat will look into the comments to decide if these are relevant or not, then discuss and include them in the draft local plan.
“If the objection cannot be accepted, the secretariat will call the complainant to discuss the issue again on a case-by-case basis.
“The local plan will then be gazetted sometime early next year,” said Iskandar.