Minister behind eviction notice? 
Malaysiakini
Sep 27, 2006
Andrew Ong

Members of the Church of Tabernacle of David in Ipoh, Perak, have alleged that a ‘third party’ involving a federal minister and a woman, is trying to take over the premises. 

The claims were made in a memorandum to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi whom they urged to intervene in the matter.

The memorandum was received today by Abdullah’s political secretary, Ahmad Yaakob. Church spokesperson N Gobalakrishnan claimed that Ahmad had promised a reply within a week.

About 300 church members who were ferried from Ipoh in five buses staged a peaceful demonstration outside the main gates of the Prime Minister’s Department in Putrajaya this morning, under the watchful eyes of a dozen uniformed policemen.

According to Gobalakrishnan, the woman involved was formerly an office-bearer of the Thaveethin Kudaram Christian Fellowship Society, which shares the church premises. She was said to have become disgruntled after being sacked by members on moral grounds in 2002.

The memorandum stated that, soon after, the woman, also a trustee for the premises, allegedly succeeded in transferring proprietary rights to a company which was alleged to be a nominee company for the ‘third party’.

A public officer of the society then filed a suit in 2004 challenging the transaction, which is still pending. The suit named the woman, church pastor and society president Menon Manasa, secretary Jasper Navaratha and the company as defendants.

As the court case is going on, the ‘third party’ allegedly engineered the deregistration of the society, and obtained a notice to seal the premises, the memorandum added.

To prove there was third-party involvement, two letters were attached to the memorandum. These were from Perak state executive committee member G Rajoo, who has oversight of non-Muslim affairs.

In a letter in 2002, Rajoo told the society that the Perak Menteri Besar had “no objections” to the use of the premise for religious and welfare purposes.

However, Rajoo changed his tone in 2005, in a letter addressed to the Ipoh mayor informing him of the society’s deregistration and adding an appeal that the licence for use of the premises be “cancelled with immediate effect”.

Copies of the documents were distributed to reporters.

Constitutional guarantee

Contacted later, the church legal counsel R Kengatharan explained that the society and the church were separate entities and that the latter, being a place of worship, does not need to be registered.

He said he believed that the church existence was protected by Article 11 of the Federal Constitution, which guarantees the right to establish and maintain religious institutions as well as property ownership.

“There must be no obstruction or impediment in the operation of places of worship. If any such impediments exist, it would tarnish the spirit of Article 11,” he added.

The church’s other lawyer M Manoharan told malaysiakini that places of worship are trust properties, and cannot be traded or sold at will. 

The New Straits Times today reported that the company’s lawyer NP Ramachandran had claimed he did not file the notice to withdraw the notice to seal the premises.

The report said court documents showed that the notice of discontinuance was filed at the High Court at 9.47am on Monday.

Ramachandran, however, claimed that he was not in Ipoh at the time and that his signature was forged. He lodged a police report yesterday.