Hindraf is at the mercy of Umno
By Joginder Ranni, FMT
On April 18, 2013, Najib Tun Razak apologised to the Indian community and a historic MOU was signed in front of 1,000 Hindraf supporters in KL while millions of Malaysian Indians were disappointed with the alliance. For the past 56 years, the Indians were systematically marginalised and kicked out from main stream programmes by the Umno-led government. With sweet promises, Najib and his team managed to get Hindraf, which shook up the Umno government in the 12th general election, on its side.
Hindraf which stood vigilant and had been the loud voice of Malaysian Indians against the atrocities of Umno suddenly became voiceless. Najib promised to meet a six point-demand, a special ministry under the prime minister’s department and a figure of RM 4.5 billion yearly was been mentioned. Today, after eight months, nothing has come of it.
Before this Najib had asked for forgiveness at three different occasions, two in front of a predominantly Indian crowd to get their valuable votes. In the MoU of Hindraf, a unit was promised to take care of Indian affairs and P Waythamoorthy told the crowd that Najib had promised 600 over government contracts but has any been delivered? He was appointed deputy minister under Prime Minister’s office. He is paid about RM20,000 with a government car and a driver but what has been his role in PM’s office? That is a question asked by many Malaysians.
There are programmes Najib and Waythamoorthy could have initiated without any finances involved. Those are to avoid temple and Indian burial ground demolitions, to approve birth certificates and ICs for thousands of stateless Indians, to convert all Tamil schools to fully government aided schools and and stopping the displacement of Indian settlements. But in the eight months since several temples been demolished, including the ancient site in Bujang Valley in Kedah.
The Indians’ stateless problems has not been not settled (lately an Indian student drank poison because she was not allowed to register in a secondary school), Kg.Railway in Sentul was demolished, Bukit Jalil estate is waiting for demolition and several Indian settlements have been demolished by Najib Tun Razak’s government. The MoU of Hindraf was breached and Indians regard it as toilet paper now.
Hindraf must be honest with the public. Did it table the same demands with Pakatan and Barisan Nasional? It intentionally dropped many demands to Barisan Nasional whereas it was demanding extra seats in the 13th general election. This shows Hindraf had a political agenda. It cheated the Indian community by saying it is an apolitical movement.
