PRAI, Feb 25 – Hindraf chief P Waythamoorthy is certain that Barisan Nasional (BN) will lose the 14th general election.
He said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s failure to honour his agreement with the Hindu-based movement would cause BN to lose votes not only among Indians, but other Malaysian communities as well, including the Malays.
“BN has deceived the Indians,” he said in an interview with FMT. “The coalition has failed to fulfil a promise made publicly. It’s a serious human rights violation. Everyone sees that.”
In the run-up to last May’s general election, BN and Hindraf signed a memorandum of understanding based on the Hindu movement’s demand for policies to benefit Malaysian Indians.
The contents of the memorandum have not been disclosed to the public, but Hindraf has said BN basically committed itself to pursuing the objectives of a blueprint of proposed policies that the Hindu group had drawn up.
After the May election, Waythamoorthy was appointed a senator and given a deputy minister’s post in the Prime Minister’s Department. He recently quit the position, citing a lack of political will on Najib’s part to honour the agreement.
Waythamoorthy told FMT that BN’s failure to implement the blueprint meant that the coalition had lost its Indian vote bank for good.
“BN has already lost the Chinese votes; now it will lose Indian votes,” he said.
“The natives of the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak will not trust BN any more.
“BN’s betrayal and violation of human rights will not go down well even with the Malay community.
“Being a Kelantanese, I know the Malays are a community who keep their word. I lived among Malays in my home state. For them, fulfilling a promise is more precious than their life.”
He praised former Kelantan Mentri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat as a model Malay leader. “He always keeps his promises to the people, especially to the poor.”
He said Hindraf made sure that the agreement with BN was signed in full public view last April because it wanted to avoid the fate suffered by Suqiu, a Chinese lobby group set up in the late 1990s to advocate broad institutional and policy reforms.
Suqiu officials have said the group’s proposals were accepted and endorsed in principle by Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s cabinet in a closed door session prior to the 1999 general election only to be rejected after the polls.
Waythamoorthy said BN had yet again proved that it never wanted to implement permanent solutions to problems faced by poor Indians in the country.
“By not honouring its promise made publicly before millions to implement the Indian blueprint, BN has showed it is a maestro in breaking promises,” he said.
“With that, BN has lost the Indian votes forever.”
– FREE MALAYSIA TODAY
