When I first met her last week, she reminded me of my dear late grandmother. She did not say much but wore a worried frown on her face (see photo).
Tonight, I received news that she had passed away just after 8.00pm on the way to the hospital, after complaining of pain in her back and hand. She had not been feeling well for some time.
Widow Santhosa Mary @ Manimathu, 74, lived among the tenant-villagers at the St Francis Xavier’s Church along Penang Road. They had been given a 31 May deadline to sign an agreement to vacate their homes. The Church, through its lawyers, wanted the villagers to accept RM10,000 in compensation and leave by 31 May 2010. If they failed to accept these terms, they had to leave by yesterday, Pentecost Sunday.
As the deadline to accept the terms approached, Manimathu grew anxious, according to one of the villagers.
“What will happen to us after that?” she was heard telling several villagers. “Which house can I go to?”
In the midst of this controversy between the church and the villagers, it looks as if God has now intervened.
Manimathu was the wife of the late Mr Selva, a foreman at the now defunct Straits Echo. She had lived in the village since 1949.
See also: ‘Penang Church not selling land to hotel’ in The Star today.
Related posts:
She must have been scared because, in today’s world, RM10,000 is nothing.
It can be finished so fast. In fact, it can finish in 3 months on just food alone.
In today’s Sun paper, there is indication that our fantastic government might be stopping the subsidy of flour, sugar and bread. As usual, the poor people would get screwed. The rich cronies would not have a problem if bread is double the price.
So this ammama must have panicked when she read the Sun paper this morning and realised that by next year, the cost of living would escalate so much that the RM10,000 would be no cushion to rest on.
It is because of stealing and corruption that essentials nowadays cannot be subsidised.
Because of scandals like the 12 billion PKFZ, many more people would die as the government won’t have money to subsidise and help the poor.
All because of corruption, stealing and cronyism
How to live well and long when the mighty powerful people continue to plunder, steal, rob the helpless and the poor. Is this the 1Malaysia that we are talking about?
Some people do not fear God nor believe in karma and retributions, they will continue to sin and against the other humans, these include the corrupted politicians for sure.
We just need to work harder to make this world a better place for EVERYBODY!
I will hope that Mrs Manimuthu Selva finds peace and rest forever safely in God’s Home.
I will light a candle for her. Perhaps the good Bishop there will find the time to light one for her too.
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
Very ironic indeed. I remembered this land was earmarked for ‘charitable’ purpose? Shouldn’t it begin by helping these people in the first instant? If you think Rm10K seemed a lot to these villagers, it must have been ‘a hell lot more’ for this church.
I hope this church takes care the emotional needs as well as their well being here-on lest forget about any other ‘charitable’ stuffs.
We are not talking about thousand’s of villagers, are we? Even then, a better solution should be work out.
rakyat@work
I am so sad to hear this. I actually got a video of her because she was so sweet, so gentle and so soft spoken. I asked her if she is worried and she spoke in Tamil and translated to me, as yes. God bless her soul and may she, from His heavenly kingdom continues to watch over her children and grandchildren. One of the daughter has four kids and they are staying in the village. She told me how to move to Paya Terubong (which has cheaper rental) when her children are all studying in Georgetown.
Dear Anil,
May her soul rest in peace.
But i’m so sad that she had to endure such grievance – leaving this world with sadness laden her weary heart.
Dear Anil and other fellow Progressive Malaysians,
Sorry to go off-topic.
Here’s an interesting article by
Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning progressive economist:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/01-2
P.S. Reading Krugman’s article immediately brings into my mind
the current state of decay and politically-motivated misuse and abuse of Malaysia’s political institutions and how all these originated during the premiership of Mahathir. It’s important to learn from history!
Rest In Peace, Madam Manimathu
In a more just society (such as a social democratic welfare state),
elderly and poor people like her would be better treated.
Well the church officials will have to live with this for the rest of their lives and answer to GOD as to why they contributed to the anxiety of this old sweet lady (just before) her death.
May she now rest in peace.
Rest In Peace, Madam Manimathu. You have a better place in Heaven than whatever your church can give you
The Bishop talks about charitable good
Right in front of his porch he forgets
About the people who stayed on church land
Decades ago which I believe he should know them well
Now one had gone away
Regretably in her mind as she expired her life
With anxiety of becoming homeless
Manimathu has put a screw on the Bishop’s mind
…
Charity always begins at home
In church as they have helped long ago
These people Bishop must come down from his chair
It is uncharitable to deal through lawyers
Words and action
It must flow with faith
As I read about the Bible
As it said Lucifer will erode the church
For it is through failure
The leaders of faith
Lucifer will return……
The Catholic church has failed in its mission
So the woes we will hear
Forgetting charity
Lust of power destroy all
It has been said many times
And Lucifer will use it so often
In so many ways around our lives
Sad, real sad! How else can the poor, helpless, old people react?
If one sees the movie Angels and Demons, one would realise that the Vatican has billions stored up. I have been to the Vatican, and I can verify this.
The Vatican is not just rich, but super rich. They have berpuluh billion pounds (sterling) in wealth. You ask me, they are probably the richest organisation in the world, beating any country’s GDP.
Each painting they have is worth millions of pounds and mind you, they have tons of paintings.
So, why the Catholic Church in Malaysia did not ask from the Vatican some help??
Ask lah couple of hundred thousand ringgit. Build some proper low cost brick homes for all those residents. The Vatican just has to sell 1 painting to fund the plight of these poor frigtened people.
That is what the Vatican is for, being the seat of power for all the Catholic churches in the world. The Vatican must help smaller archdioceses. What is all the money for?
It is for reasons such as the above that I do not go to church anymore and rather pray at home. If I do go also, its not to pray but to look at all the girls in super short mini skirts pretending to pray.
RIP, madam !
To tell the truth, houses of worship are among the richest institutions in the world. They stores up wealth (dunno for what purpose) … only to see that at the end..someone is dead…not because of anything but b’coz they have no wealth of money.
“Well the church officials will have to live with this for the rest of their lives and answer to GOD as to why they contributed to the anxiety of this old sweet lady (just before) her death.”
DON’T BE SILLY!It’s her time to go. THe CHurch official or Bishop has nothing to do with her death.
ANil, what is the point of you putting this up? To draw more criticism to the Church?
Let say tomorrow, one of the residents met with an accident and died, are everybody going to blame the Bishop/Church?PLease be rational and logical.Don’t blame the Church or Bishop or the Eviction when one of them died.
Ganesh, the Vatican IS the richest institution in the world.
It’s always made out to us that the church is always poor, a bottomless pit that no amount of donations will ever fill. Some churches even advocate the 30% of your income donation, and surely God will reserve a place for you in heaven.
It gets even better when different interpretations are given to Christ’s words. For example, the poor will always be with you but I will not. Conclusion: never mind about the poor, just concentrate on worshipping Me. Another: no where in the bible does it say it is a sin to be rich.
I gave up a long time ago.
I don’t know about you but this this poor widow is with Jesus in my books.
My condolences to the family of the late widow. May her soul rest in peace.
But, Anil, you are stoking the fire needlessly. I respect your opinion on the issue and I am 100% behind you. I commented in an earlier post that I feel the Church, your Church, is not handling the issue well. It just seems to me the Church is simply fed-up with the settlers and want them to go so that it can take it’s own sweet time to do want it wants to do with the land. But, please, the anxiety that she faced may not have contributed to her death. Yet, the insinuation that you portend is inescapable.
Dear Lilian…
for ur information she no need to go paya terubong.She (is believed to have) her own house at sg.pinang and she rented for sumbody…another thing sg.pinang is not tat far..its within the georgetown…
Some time ago there was some active discussion on the responsibility of the archdiocese to be more transparent with regard their accounts. Churches are required to display their accounts on the Notice Board but this does not apply of the archdiocese. The Archbishop’s office insisted that there was no necessity for its accounts to be revealed to the public. Some clause in “CANON LAW” was quoted to defend this position.
Its time for the Catholic Community to debate this issue so that this sad state of events can be corrected. We WANT and NEED to know WHERE IS ALL THE MONEY GOING TO??? Te Church is now behaving like uncaring landlords. “Harmony through Reconciliation” was a prominent theme two years ago? Is this harmony? Is this Reconciliation?
I feel sad to hear about the death of this dear old lady.
May her soul rest in peace.
And allow me to address the Bishop of Penang.
My dear Bishop,
You are quoted in the Herald as well as in the MSM as denying that the church land will be sold(“That is absolute nonsense” you say) and that it has been “ear-marked for religious, charitable and cultural purposes”. I fail to see the logic in your statement.
I wish to pose a few questions for you to reflect on:
Is it charitable to make these unfortunate people who had trusted the church that you are head of (in Penang) (leave the homes where they have lived for years)?
Where do you think they can find a home for RM10 000?
Why dont you tell us, your faithful, what charitable, religious and cultural purposes you have in mind?
Is it going be like the ill-conceived and under-used office building in Macalister Road? or like the Wisma Katholik nearby (meant for use by Catholics as a formation centre) now rented out to others?
Please be tranparent about you dealings. We havent yet recoverd from the deals at Kelawai Road and Kampong Nesrani.
Please let “Jesus increase in you” and reflect on Micah 6:8 as you go sleep tonight.
I believed that mental anxiety contributed to this old lady death. All of affected people are catholic belong to the same church, so why can’t bishop reserve their home until they expired? The bishop should put him in their shoes and think about the difficulity of people.Practise what you preach first….
I have some questions which I hope someone will be able to answer here.
1. Is the Catholic Church of Malaysia a registered charitable organisation i.e. a legal entity in the form of a charitable trust in Malaysia?
2. Is a set of consolidated annual accounts for the Malaysian Catholic Church produced, audited and published to all its members at its annual AGM and a copy also lodged with the Malaysian Registrar of Societies for public access/scrutiny?
3. Is the Malaysian Catholic Church required by its legal charter/articles to use its operating surpluses only, or mainly, for the benefit of the Malaysian Church/Catholics?
4. Is the Malaysian Catholic Church required to transfer some of its income/gains/surpluses to the Vatican’s coffers, say annually/ periodically?
5. If no to 4, then does it transfer some of its income/gains/surpluses to the Vatican’s coffers voluntarily?
6. Is it common knowledge to the Catholics there who the Trustees and “members” of the Malaysian Catholic Church are?
7. How are these Trustees held accountable by the members of the Malaysian Catholic Church?
Thanks.
“Imagine Power To The People” John Lennon.
Tks ‘rakyat’ for that info. Please do furnish us with more info if you have any.
Before blame on each other .try to find out what is happening behind the scene.”Don’t judge the book by cover”.dont look from one side only.is that all resident don’t have house ???…each of the family have a own house and rented.if this fact not true ask them to proof but its their personal things.but my question is why they wanna to find out the sympathy?.if really they are poor 100% I will support them.they are pretend like don’t have anything .i was survey on this problem since last year.lets come to one of them not able to pay rental for few months to church.but the person able to rental part of his house and get payment.is that fair ??…if you don’t believe survey first is that true or not …I can proof who is doing that.i have lot of proof like this.but my concernt are not to pin point anyone or hurt.just don’t spoil the church name.and don’t simply create a story with out clarified the true.again don’t look from one angle only…….. they it self having lot of problem.one more example…this guy already move out from church house.before this he rented his partion room for RM300 few of ladyboy staying there and pariest priest get know and warned that person.because of that house become spot of ladyboy.other then that the person collect money from hawker are parking the trolley at his compound.but cannot pay less then 100 ringgit rental to church.is that fair??…but people from outside looking one side only.and blame why catholic church doing like this to poor people…but church doing lot to poor people and helping in few ways.example anyone know church giving a education loan to catholic people.???they are giving.in term of payback after get job.and how many of them payback after get job???..if get loan from bank is that we just leave it like that and not payback ????.lot of things we need to know before we blame generally about catholic church .thank you.
Annon, it’s not a case of the Church against the families. It’s certain personalities within it, rather than the Church per se. With Anil’s kind indulgence, I’ll reproduce a posting I made elsewhere in this site some days ago, which amply illustrates what I mean.
This is from the 19.04.09 church bulletin, from The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Pulau Tikus, Penang. Read between the lines for a bigger picture.
“Very often we priests hear of things happening in the Church, only after the fact, i.e. when your Bishop decided to sell part of the land in the compound of St. Francis Xavier, it was only after the sale that we heard about it… and we had to take the flak from you, the people.
Our Church teaches/preaches transparency but often forgets to practise it… could be partly the fault of us, the priests and you the Laity… we do not question our “superiors” enough, or we try a few times and when we are not listened to, we give up. This is one way in which we encourage
injustice/evil.
I have been hearing rumours that our Bishops are wanting to sell part of College General lands ‐ is it the Bishops or Propaganda Fidei (The Propagation of Faith), in the Vatican?
What are we going to do ‐ especially when the Penang people are trying so desperately to preserve what green remains in Penang and we are faced with the evils of hillside developments. Another rumour is that College General is to be leased out… remember what happened to Wisma Uskop, which was built for you, with much of your money! Look into these rumours, and if true, see what could be done.. Godbless.”
The Church then, is an organisation with a layered structural hierarchy. It is run by men. Whether holy or haughty, pious or petty, wise or unwise, driven by love or by ambition, liable to mistakes and full of foibles and follies, or inspired and directed by God… you decide. As the Lord said, by its fruit can you judge the tree.
Dear reader,
1.One more person also very sick at the village now.Very Soon will expired.So the next blame goes to bishop too.Pls beware the person face alot of suffering from the family memmbers…
2. The families are staying generation by generation.They have thier own properties.No one there are poor peeple.All of them have thier own houses.All the houses are rented to outsider.The reason why they do want to leave the place because the place is very convinient and also very cheap renting.
3. The church did so much for them but they are very ungrateful pepole.Only god can judge them.For ur information the disadvantage:
a) alot of drugs exchanging
b) every celebration there will be a big party going on infront of the church and also sleeping when they are over drunk and also fighting each other.
4.They fight for the catholic church land but they are going to different mission like serve at the temple,jeohvah witness,worshiping the charm(BOMOH).Do you think they are still have to diserve the land???and also convert to other religion.This land rented for only catholic people.
5. All the golden people pls “LISTEN” dont worried about your shelter.Where is your Houses??Why you all ask your children to rent your own houses??Pls ask them back your property..
THIS IS MY HUMBLE REQUEST
The church, (and some of) the clergy and Bishops are the same as the Pharisees whom Jesus rebuked in the Gospels:
Mark 12:40
“They take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a show of saying long prayers. Their punishment will be all the worse!”.
Y-goreng-me
I was under the impression that only the BN Government rob the poor rakyat of their bare necessities.
Now the Church authorities mainly the head of the Catholic Church in Penang has jumped into the bandwagon to torment and thumb down the poor.
O GOD! Have Mercy!
Don’t the saying “Charity Begins at Home” hold any water at all even in the Catholic Church?
I think it is time for the Head – the Bishop to retire…
Dear writer,
Its wrong to blame the bishop as you know if every Roman catholic wants to occupy the church land then the church will have no land . even the western road cemetery is full. I don’t think what the writer knows what is going on there in the Francis Xavier church land.so let the Bishop decide what is right.
its better others keep off the church business no outsider intervention.
order miltia templi.
anne brella perhaps you should go investigate yourself and if your investigation does not serve you, go and take the church to court. I was laughing reading your post with all the questions. Just to inform you, the church existed in Tanah Melayu for the past almost 500 years solidly so perhaps your questions have been answered already. And also the church run on donations even Vatican. I am still laughing haha
Everyone knows the church is rich. RM10,000 will get you nowhere in finding a new home. Especially since they are all retired. How heartless can the Church get. They should be practising what they preach – all that stuff about loving your neighbour and charity. What hypocrites.
Greg,
Your comments make an utter mockery of the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.