Posts Tagged ‘Waytha’

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HINDRAF wants to talk with PM

April 30th, 2009
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I doubt if the new PM wants to meet a group that continuously blames UMNO for the discrimination that’s happening in the country. Perhaps he just might do that, and score another point with the community. Everyone would remember when PM Badawi said “who is HINDRAF” because the sole representative of the Indian community is MIC. Now that MIC has lost much ground and support, it remains to see if the new administration is willing to engage other groups as well.

With a stroke of brilliance, the administration can close the chapter on HINDRAF by promising to look into the problems raised by them – temple demolition, IC/birth cert problem, tamil school status, lock-up deaths, etc. In fact,  there’s been no news of temple demolition in last two months, and schools have been promised RM130 million for renovation works. If the administration can show that steps are actually being taken instead of merely promises, there won’t be a reason for HINDRAF to exist anymore. It can transform into a social service body instead of political pressure group.

Hindraf leader P. Waythamoorthy wants Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to consider having a dialogue with the organisation.

The chairman of the outlawed group, who is in self-exile in London, says he was prepared to meet Najib to highlight the grouses that had pushed Hindraf to mobilise members of the Indian community to the rally on Nov 25, 2007.

“It is timely for the prime minister and the government of the day to engage Hindraf and the Makkal Sakthi movement in a dialogue to discuss ways and means to tackle the various problems afflicting the Indian community in Malaysia,” said Waythamoorthy.

He added that Hindraf and the Makkal Sakthi movement had always been open to initiating an open and honest discussion with the relevant authorities to help solve the socio-economic ills plaguing the Indian community.

“Given that Najib is propagating his 1Malaysia philosophy, solving the Malaysian Indian problem must be made a top priority,” said Waythamoorthy who is recovering from heart surgery.

He added that he was keen to put forward to Najib the movement’s 18-point demand that was self-explanatory.

Among the points is the need for all Tamil schools in the country to be made fully-aided entities.

Currently, Tamil schools are only partially-aided and this has resulted in students having to make do with ramshackle structures for classrooms.

“We are willing to work with the current government to ensure that the interests of the Indian community is taken care off,” said Waythamoorthy.

Waythamoorthy, who spearheaded the movement with his elder brother Uthayakumar –, now detained under the Internal Security Act – recently reshaped Hindraf into a non-governmental organisation to tackle the various socio-economic problems faced by Indians.

He had also insisted in maintaining Hindraf as a non-political entity.

One party that agrees with Waytha’s move is Gerakan, well the Penang branch at least. No news from others.

Penang Gerakan has welcomed Hindraf chairman P. Waythamoorthy’s request for a dialogue with the Government, saying it is a “positive step”.

State party chairman Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan said social and economic problems affecting the Indian community raised by the outlawed group must be solved urgently.

In a press statement he said the problems could be solved through consultations and discussions instead of confrontations.

“Waythamoorthy’s overture to have a dialogue with the Government is a positive step and Gerakan welcomes it,” he said.

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2 advisors for HINDRAF

April 22nd, 2009
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As part of the restructuring process of HINDRAF, Waytha announces the appointment of two MPs as advisors. The two were part of the coordinators who were removed earlier as part of the restructuring process. There’s no more coordinator, but there will be directors and advisors. Not sure about the 3-man committee.

The duo – M Manogaran (DAP-Teluk Intan) and S Manikavasagam (PKR-Kapar) – have been informed of their appointments and have accepted their new role for the Hindu rights movement.

Waythamoorthy today told Malaysiakini that the new team of leadership would be made up of new faces.

He also said that these local leaders will no longer be referred as coordinators.

“The new restructured team would consist of advisors and directors for various fields,” he said.

Among the new positions to be filled by the new appointees would be the human rights director, economic, social and political rights director, public relations director, and finance director.

Waythamoorthy would remain the movement’s chairperson.

He also said that any former coordinators and other Hindraf leaders who were interested in forming a political party would be advised to temporarily detach themselves from Hindraf.

“This is to protect Hindraf from allegations that it is converting into a political party.

“However we will accept them as ‘political friends’ within Hindraf just like how we have accepted Manogaran and Manikavasagam,” he said.

Manikavasagam provided some comments as well:

Meanwhile Manikavasagam said that Waythamoorthy’s move to restructure Hindraf was a strategic action to face new challenges and to prepare the Indian voters for the next elections.

“I had very lengthy discussions with Waythamoorthy and I am convinced he knows what he is doing.

“He plans ahead and is a far sighted person whom many people do not understand,” he told Malaysiakini.

Manikavasagam said the Hindraf leader had informed him that he wanted to prepare the people to work together with the opposition “to remove the current BN government”.

“I urge all our supporters to be patient,” said the member of parliament who also warned the supporters to be aware of some individuals claiming to be the real Hindraf leaders.

“There are proxies of BN who are trying to confuse the people by claiming they were the original founders of Hindraf and had invented the slogan Makkal Sakthi (people power).

Calling these people as cheap-publicity seekers, Manikavasagam said that they were not even present when Hindraf was formed in the office of lawyer P Uthayakumar (photo) who is now under the ISA detention for his role in the movement.

Such people are tools of the BN to confuse our supporters, he added without naming anyone.

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Waytha clarifies coordinator suspension

April 19th, 2009
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Received via email:

PRESS STATEMENT 190409

On the 17th April I had released a statement on the urgent need to restructure HINDRAF and the setting up of a New Committee and Working Groups.

This statement has been misinterpreted and misunderstood by certain segment of the public which read it as though we are replacing our coordinators. This is not the case as it merely a restructuring exercise.

The original 10 member committee was set up to oversee the campaign and demands for the release of HINDRAF leaders and since then those appointed to the position of coordinators have moved on to undertake other key responsibilities which is far more challenging with the increased need of the society.

Manoharan and Manickavasagam have since been elected members of Parliament, which requires them to positively contribute to the country and their constituents.

Surendran solely has been mounted with the uphill task of handling the burden of all legal matters which was previously handled by 3 of the HINDRAF Lawyers (Uthaya, Manoharan and Genga).

Tanendran has since indicated that he is serious about forming his own political party.

With the recent change of the country’s leadership earlier this month, I am of the opinion HINDRAF have to “cave in” for a longer period to struggle for the society to pressure the Government to meet our demands as well as working together in co-operation with all opposition parties to prepare for the next General Election.

As chairman of HINDRAF, I can state that the valuable and sound advice, support and contribution from the aforesaid Politicians, Members of Parliament and Legal advisor has been vital in spearheading HINDRAF in its struggle. The continuous support from them would only strengthen the movement’s direction in fulfilling the demands of the Indian community

The expectations and aspirations of the Indian community are beyond the original demands and HINDRAF needs to keep up with the needs and changes to be relevant and “a player” in the field of Human Rights in Malaysia.

In these circumstances a complete revamp and restructure is needed to face the new challenges.

The new structure would be announced within the next few days.

P.Waytha Moorthy

CHAIRMAN

There’s some problem arising now.  Even though coordinator are asked not give out statements, we find Thanenthiran doing so:

R. Thanenthiran, who was a national coordinator until Waytha- moorthy issued the suspension order, said the movement was now taking steps to become a formal political party.

He said an official statement about the formation of the new party was expected at the end of this month or early next month.

“Since Hindraf was banned, we have been facing difficulties and we need to continue being mobile to take care of the welfare of the Indian community,” he said, adding that it would be the alternative to existing Indian parties.

He said the process to form a new party is nearly completed.

The movement’s new structure is expected to comprise a non-government organisation and a political party.

Thanenthiran’s goal, which had earlier appeared in an online news portal, seemed different from what Waythamoorthy was pushing for.

Yesterday, Waythamoorthy, who has maintained that Hindraf/Makkal Sakthi should remain a non-political pressure group, said: “It is Thanenthiran’s right to become involved in politics or to set-up a political party. I cannot stop him and will not stop him.”

Another former national coordinator, S. Manikavasagam, agreed with Waythamoorthy’s stand, saying Hindraf should remain apolitical.

“Waythamoorthy had from the very beginning stressed that Hindraf/Makkal Sakthi will not be involved in politics but function as a pressure group,” said Manikavasagam.

Waytha clarifies the original reason for the setup of the coordinators:

He said that the original 10-member committee was set up towards the end of 2007 to oversee the movement’s campaign in fighting for the rights of the Indian community and to demand for the release of Hindraf leaders held under the Internal Security Act in December 2007.

Malaysiakini also quoted from Malaysia Nanban:

And highlighting the widening rift in the movement, leading Tamil daily Malaysia Nanban today carried a headline which asked ‘Who is Waythamoorthy?’.

The daily quoted some grassroots supporters questioning Waythamoorthy’s decision to remain overseas while faulting the local coordinators.

“He should have been here fighting with us for our cause rather than issuing statements from overseas,” they said.

Now, I wonder which grassroots members are asking him to fight for their cause in Malaysia. Don’t they know ISA is waiting for him? Must be a bunch of misinformed grassroots supporters.

This is a big risk indeed for HINDRAF. The restructuring can backfire bigtime. I’m not sure how thing will turn out. We have to wait for more information from Waytha. Another factor will be the action of the coordinators like Thanenthiran – would they start to badmouth Hindraf in case they are not in the new setup? For a fledgling body, any sort of scandal or exposure will bury it.

But, I still remember Waytha’s newspaper interview in 2007 which he said that HINDRAF may cease to exist in the future, maybe something else will replace it, or there won’t be a reason for it to exist.

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Waytha suspends HINDRAF coordinators

April 17th, 2009
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In a surprising move, HINDRAF chairman Waythamoorthy suspended all coordinators of HINDRAF with immediate effect, to be replaced with a 3-man interim committee (no info on who they are). Initial response from Thanenthiran is that he supports the move made by Waytha.

Hindraf’s London-based leader P Waythamoorthy has suspended the movement’s 10-member coordinators with immediate effect and replaced them with a three-man interim committee.

Among those dropped from the line-up included the movement’s national coordinator RS Thanendran who was helming the show for Hindraf locally while Waythamoorthy was leading from London.

Waythamoorthy has also put a gag order on these dropped coordinators.

“All Hindraf coordinators are to refrain from issuing statements in the name of Hindraf though they are free to express their personal opinions on any matters they choose,” he said.

He also said that the reason for the change was to allow the movement to move forward with its original cause and aims.

The 10-member coordinators were appointed at the end of 2007 after Waythamoorthy had left the country to seek international lobby in the face of government arrests…

Since then Thanendran (photo) and the other nine coordinators have been keeping the Hindraf movement alive and relevant, including successfully turning the Indian voters to support the opposition in the 2008 general election.

However there have been complaints recently that the movement and some of its coordinators have become politically ambitious.

The final fallout was apparently the showdown the movement had with PKR’s leader Anwar Ibrahim after he decided to pick someone from outside of Hindraf to contest for the Bukit Selambau state by-election early this month.

Hindraf supporters had originally proposed that Thanendran was given that seat.

The matter came to a close only after a phone call from Anwar to Waythamoorthy, who then instructed his coordinators to stand down and throw their support behind PKR, which eventually won the by-election.

At the same time, there were other coordinators who had started acting on their own and without any coordination with the Hindraf leadership.

Waythamoorthy told Malaysiakini today that he had to make the startling changes in order to keep Hindraf in the mainstay of fighting for the community’s rights.

“Hindraf’s struggle has entered a new phase where the situation in the country has qualitatively changed since our mass protest on Nov 25, 2007,” he said.

He said that the needs, expectations, desire and the aspiration of the Indian community from Hindraf has developed beyond the initial demands and seeking the release of its leaders currently held under the ISA.

“In light of these developments and the need to restructure the working groups, Hindraf with immediate effect suspends its 10-member coordinators team including its national coordinator, event coordinator and publicity coordinators and all state and district coordinators,” he added in a statement.

He also said that a new committee of volunteers and working groups would be set up nationwide to meet the need of the Indian community.

He said this would be done after consultations with the grassroots supporters of Hindraf/Makkal Sakthi.

When contacted Thanendran said he accepted Waythamoorthy’ decision and that he will continue to fight for Hindraf’s struggles.

“I will continue to back the movement. This is a good strategy to ensure that Hindraf remains apolitical in its struggles,” he added.

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Waytha Press Statement on Bukit Selambau

April 3rd, 2009
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received via email from Waytha:

HINDRAF – BRIEF PRESS STATEMENT 030409

1) 1. HINDRAF acknowledges that our grass root supporters are disappointed that the Bukit Selambau seat was not offered to any of the 5 short listed candidates (two of whom were HINDRAF coordinators and remaining 3 were reputable KEADILAN local leaders) and urge our supporters to remain focussed and calm.

2) 2. I had spoken to HINDRAF National Coordinator RS Tanendran and he confirms that most of his statements had been taken out of context and manipulated by the government run media to portray that HINDRAF does not support PAKATAN to create confusion and anxiety amongst supporters.

3) 3.The discretion of candidate selection in Bukit Selambau was within the prerogative of Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim along with the other leaders of the PAKATAN coalition. However we hope in future there would be some level of consultation with HINDRAF to avoid any unwarranted confusion.

4) 4.Our mutual “Political Enemy” would be no other than the BN imperialist government. Our goal is to create awareness of the depleted state of her subject, to stay focussed by initiating actions by working together hand in hand in fairness to ensure we successfully get rid of our “common enemy” in the next elections. After 50 years HINDRAF created the awareness that changed the mindset of 80% traditional Indian BN voters who had always been loyal to BN.

5) 5. It is time all Pakatan leaders-Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Mr.Lim Kit Siang and Dato Seri Haji Hadi Awang realise that the current Political climate has to be maximised. If we fail to work and act together to get rid of BN in the next GE (2012) then the hope of opposition ever taking over the reign of the Country will die permanently and I honestly envisage the crack and crumble of PAKATAN from then on.

6) 6. I had the opportunity to discuss pertinent questions raised by grass root supporters of HINDRAF with Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim and we had come to an understanding that matters affecting the Indian community would be further discussed and resolved at a later date with leaders of all 3 PAKATAN coalition.

7) 7.The Indian voters in Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau are aware of the predicament of the society and are now politically mature thus they could not be fooled by BN and their “peanuts” often thrown during elections.

8) 8.HINDRAF reiterates its commitment to campaign and support PAKATAN candidates in both Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau.

P.Waytha Moorthy

Hindraf- Chairman

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