BUSINESS and thuggery should never mix. Because if they are allowed to do so, mayhem and madness will be the result as had happened at the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple incident in USJ 25, Putra Heights, Subang Jaya, on Monday morning. Thuggery had turned a simple land dispute between One City Development Sdn Bhd (One City) and the management of the temple into a messy criminal act. Several people were injured and 18 vehicles were set ablaze in the incident.
One firemen, Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim, 24, who was beaten senseless is now on life support. Police have confirmed the arrest of 21 people, including two lawyers of One City. What is more shocking is the bombshell dropped by Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday: One City’s lawyers had paid RM150,000 to a leader ofagang of 50 men to secure the land over which stands the temple. This is extremely insensitive of One City’s lawyers. Any lawyer worth his salt would surely know that this is akin to pitting one ethnic group against another, with all the repercursions it implies. One City on Monday denied any involvement in the fracas.
We are thankful to our police for taking the quick action they did for if they did not, the situation could have turned into a tinderbox. Businessmen must have more sense than this. To use thuggery is business unusual of the most extreme kind. It may be a practice engaged by certain developers to get squatters off their land but it must not be tolerated in a land where the rule of law prevails. Violence begets violence as we learned on Monday. Businesses which use violence as a model to generate profits must know a simple commercial truth: the community wherein they conduct their operations would not grant them the licence to operate. This has been demonstrated not only in Malaysia, but globally too. Bad reputation means harmed profits. In extreme cases, the demise of the enterprise even.
Besides, violence as a modus operandi is illegal. Politicians, too, should stop muddying the already murky waters by making statements that may lead to unnecessary tensions between the various communities in the country. Often, when an incident such as this happens, ministers rush to issue media statements without giving proper thought to the matter at hand.
On matters as sensitive as the temple incident, ministers should refrain from issuing statements before verifying the facts. They should let the police and the security forces do their job on the ground. As cabinet ministers they should know that there is no one better placed than the prime minister and home minister to issue statements on the temple incident.
Muhyiddin has rightly warned of stern actions against people stoking racial flames. The police must take the cue from the home minister and visit upon those behind the violence the severest of punishments the law allows. Be they companies or individuals, they must be punished severely. If any company is found to be involved, the shareholders and directors must be taken to task. The law must send them the message that crime doesn’t pay.