PETALING JAYA, May 17- The appointment of Hindraf leader P Waythamoorthy as a deputy minister has drawn condemnation from his activist brother P Uthayakumar, an MIC leader and a businessman claiming to represent Indian entrepreneurs.
“Congratulations to Waytha as the latest Indian mandore, otherwise known as the new S Samy Vellu,” said Uthayakumar, who heads a faction of Hindraf and also leads the unregistered Human Rights Party.
“Mandore” is a word that Malaysian Indians use pejoratively to refer to an Indian who oppresses his own people to please his non-Indian master. S Samy Vellu is a former president of MIC.
Uthayakumar said his younger brother was a “political opportunist” who had been diverted from Hindraf’s cause by a personal agenda.
“Waythamoorthy’s involvement in Najib’s cabinet has nothing to do with Hindraf,” he said. “He was sacked from Hindraf on April 25 by the Hindraf supreme council for being a traitor.”
Waythamoorthy is chairman of the newly registered Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia. His appointment as a senator and a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department came close on the heels of his rapprochement with premier Najib Tun Razak.
Last month, in return for Waythamoorthy’s declaration of support for Barisan Nasional, Najib agreed to accept the Hindraf blueprint of policies to help poor Indians.
This came after Waythamoorthy had embarked on a hunger strike until either BN or Pakatan would sign the Hindraf blueprint.
Fast and become a deputy
MIC Youth leader T Mohan meanwhile made his criticism through Twitter.
“Did a hunger strike, condemned BN and Malaysia all over the world,” Mohan tweeted yesterday. “Yet he becomes a deputy minister! So easy.”
In a statement today, Mohan said Waythamoorthy’s appointment to the BN administration would further weaken the Indian support for the government.
“His 21 days of fasting only worked to his advantage and not for the community.
“My question now is if someone fasts for more than 21 days, will he get a full minister’s position?” asked Mohan.
He said that the only way to oversome issues pertaining the Indian community was to strengthen MIC as well as BN.
“We should focus in creating a strong MIC and BN instead of bringing someone from outside,” he said.
Protests planned
Meanwhile, businessman N Kuppan, 57, told FMT that a group of Indian entrepreneurs would protest in the streets against Waythamoorthy unless he rejected his appointment as deputy minister.
“He has betrayed the 1.8 million Indians who were behind him during the Hindraf rally in 2007,” Kuppan said.
“He and his family can enjoy the perks of a deputy minister, but this generation will forever remember him as a traitor to his own community.
“We Indians were the ones who put him at the top and it is not a big issue for us to throw him into the streets.”
Waythamoorthy, who was appointed as a senator today before he took his oath as a deputy minister, could not be contacted for comment.
