PETALING JAYA: A controversy is brewing in the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), with brothers P. Waythamoorthy and said to be at loggerheads over the former’s support for the Barisan Nasional.
An SMS is being circulated stating that Waythamoorthy, who is the Hindraf chairman, has been sacked by the group’s “supreme council” and that Uthayakumar would now lead Hindraf in championing the “anti-Barisan crusade”.
The Barisan and Waythamoorthy’s faction in Hindraf had on Sunday inked an MoU in Brickfields where Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak endorsed a blueprint for the uplifting of the Malaysian Indian community.Uthayakumar
Waythamoorthy had signed the MoU on behalf of Hindraf. The blueprint highlights, among others, issues related to displaced Indian plantation workers in the country, education until tertiary level, job opportunities in the government sector and financial loans to Indian entrepreneurs.
Waythamoorthy denied yesterday that he had been sacked, adding that no Hindraf “supreme council” existed and that Uthayakumar had no say in Hindraf as he was no longer a member.
“He (Uthayakumar) left Hindraf to form his own human rights group. He’s always been a one-man show, he disagrees with us so he got a few people and now he is saying that I’ve been sacked and he’s the de facto leader,” Waythamoorthy said.
Waythamoorthy maintained that Hindraf would continue to support Barisan in the elections.
“Over 700 Hindraf members attended the convention on Sunday to endorse the MoU with Barisan,” he said.
At the event, Waythamoorthy asked Indians to return Barisan’s two-thirds majority on polling day, insisting that the Indian community’s welfare would be better cared for under Barisan.
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