Bujang Valley Blues

Picture courtesy of @soonkv

The ancient ruins in Lembah Bujang are a treasure. They are our treasure, our Angkor Wat, our Borobudur. Yet they are being wantonly destroyed so that some unnamed property developer can get rich.

Some people have surmised that this destruction had the tacit blessing of the authorities because the ruins are evidence that Hinduism once flourished in Tanah Melayu millennia ago and that truth simply cannot be countenanced in the present religio-political climate.

Of course, since the news of the destruction broke followed by national outrage, the Kedah government is on damage control mode, "scrambling" to salvage the ruins. Typical.

We have lost so much of our cultural heritage. Once we may have thought that it was through ignorance and neglect but recently, it has become frighteningly obvious that there is an insidious effort to erase or devalue those parts of our history and heritage that don't sit well with the ruling party's vision of an Islamic, Malay dominant Malaysia.

What's the point trumpeting your so-called piety to the world when your actions clearly show that you have no soul?

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2013/11/29/8th-century-temple-site-in-bujang-valley-demolished/

http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/after-uproar-kedah-scrambles-bid-to-salvage-lembah-bujang-ruins

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