It has been settled. The Penang Hindu Endowment board (PHEB) will come out with their own golden chariot that will carry the Murugan vel from the Queens Street Mariamman temple to the hilltop Murugan temple before the Thaipusam festival and bring it back after the festival.
All these years, the PHEB has taken responsibility for the Thaipusam festivals and has coordinated and managed all religious affairs, security matters and liaison with the various agencies making sure that everything is in order. However, only the chariot procession has been organised by the Nattukottai chettiars.
As the country develops and goes forward, the second and third generation of Malaysian Tamils have matured and developed the self-confidence and managing skills to run everything from A to Z.
We appreciate and are grateful to the Nattukottai Chettiars for organising the silver chariot processions over the past 126 years even though the Malaysian Tamils and others had introduced a wooden chariot prior to these 126 years.
Now, their grandchildren and great grandchildren, who are mostly educated and settled in Malaysia as its citizens, feel confident enough to run the whole Thaipusam festival themselves. This is a welcome development and it’s time the Nattukotai Chettiars happily hand over and feel proud at the change in the state of affairs.
The new PHEB, under the guidance of Prof P Ramasamy, has in fact gone one step forward and introduced a golden chariot. The Chettiars, with their strong devotion to Lord Muruga, should be more embracing and compassionate towards the Malaysian Tamils instead of being stumbling block towards the revival and resurgence of the working class Tamils wanting to manage their own chariot.
The Nattukotai chettiars were very exclusive in managing the chariot processions and do not want Malaysian Tamils anywhere near their deity and ceremonies during the chariot processions.
After independence, Penang and Singapore reenacted the Hindu Endowment Board Act which was introduced by the British in 1906 while Malacca did not. Since the takeover by DAP/Pakatan government in 2008, there was a resurgence in the PHEB when all the assets were brought into the books and all transactions were properly recorded and maintained.
The list of temples under its management increased to eight from five. The endowment board has made education its top priority. In 2015, PHEB gave RM53,7348 in education aid to 280 students.
While the Chettiars have been collecting donation during the annual Thaipusam chariot processions, they did not provide any help towards the Malaysian Tamils or Tamil schools all these years. When PHEB ask for contributions to their scholarship fund, the Chettiars promised RM10,000 per year from now onwards. The Chettiar clan claims they have given out money for the needy but they have no record of it. But this is strange as it goes counter to the Chettiar trait.
But as usual, there will be one group of Tamils who oppose the PHEB. The mostly BN-supporting Tamils can’t accept the resurgence and revival of PHEB and they want the Chettiars to continue as in the past and are now blaming the PHEB for the current two chariot procession during Thaipusam.
The long subservience to Umno has diminished their self-confidence and they feel threatened that others can succeed where they have failed miserably. They don’t mind foreign citizens come to Malaysia once a year to manage the chariot then to encourage local bodies like the PHEB to organise the chariot procession. This group creates all kinds of rumors and false claims to discredit the PHEB from successfully managing the whole Thaipusam festival.
It is time that all well-meaning Tamils and all Indians fully support the PHEB. Let’s support PHEB successfully manage the Penang Thaipusam festival and turn temples into knowledge and community centres with the focus on education.
S RAMAKRISHNAN is a former senator.
