PETALING JAYA, Jan 4 — The latest attempt by renegade PKR leader N. Gobalakrishnan last night to spark a revolt over the closure of the hilltop Sivan temple here was a big flop. Hardly 50 people turned up for a forum called by the Padang Serai MP to discuss the temple closure on the grounds of safety concerns.
Even then, about half an hour in, about a dozen other PKR Indian grassroots leaders led by former Kuala Lumpur deputy chief R. Suresh Kumar broke up the forum and told the attendees to leave.
Gobalakrishnan had tried to lay the closure of the temple at the feet of PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in a series of Twitter posts and press statements in the past week.Expectations had been high that the forum on the temple at the Soma Hall here would see a crowd in the hundreds, if not thousands, because of Gobalakrishnan’s inflammatory rhetoric over the temple, blaming Anwar for the closure without offering any concrete evidence.
The temple closure was ordered in December 2007 due to extensive development without prior approval that caused local council engineers to fear a collapse on devotees or residents below the hilltop.
The construction continued under the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government but was stopped again pending an official report on safety. The temple has remained closed for about two years now.
Gobalakrishnan has turned toxic against Anwar, his former benefactor, and his party but he has been careful not to widen his attacks on the DAP and PAS.Another Hindu issue he is dredging up is a public holiday for Thaipusam that Gobalakrishnan says PAS had promised for Kedah but has not been fulfilled.
Gobalakrishnan, who along with Suresh had failed to be elected as a party vice president, is said to be unhappy that lawyer N. Surendran had been appointed a vice-president instead which Gobalakrishnan takes as a personal insult to Indian leaders like himself.But over and above his expressions of unhappiness about PKR is talk that he is considering a defection to BN or going independent like others before him.
He has, however, denied he is leaving and had promised to stay in PKR and fight for justice.
Source : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/gobalas-sermon-on-the-mount-draws-meek-crowd/
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