KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 — They are free but they will feel like they are still in jail.
The two Hindraf lawyers V. Ganabatirao and R. Kengadharan have been tied down with numerous conditions as part of their “freedom.”
They cannot leave the districts they live in, must be back home by 7pm, must get written permission from the district police to leave the districts and cannot give any press conference, take part in gatherings of more then five people or take part in organised political activities.
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Gengatharn and Ganapathi Rao returning home
When they were freed and driven to their homes here — Ganabatirao in Kampung Jawa, Shah Alam and Kengadharan in Kelana Jaya — they were taken to the respective district police stations where the rules were read out to them.
While Kengadharan managed to say a few sentences at a press conference at his house, Ganabatirao was too shaken to say even a few words.
But he did tell The Malaysian Insider his disappointment that his “release” had not brought him the freedom he and his family had hoped for.
He was overcome with emotions when asked what was top most in his mind on the long drive from Kamunting Camp yesterday. “We paid the price, we sacrificed for the community but others are enjoying the benefits,” he said.
“We (Hindraf Five) cleared the jungle, tilled the soil, planted the seeds but we suffered in prison while others harvested the fruits,” he said before plainclothes police intervened and stopped him from speaking.
Earlier after his arrival in a police car, about 200 people greeted Ganabatirao with flowers, Tamil mridangam (drum) music and hoisted him on their shoulders and walked to his house at the 8th mile Jalan Kemuning.
His house is part of a settlement of uprooted Indians from estates who had settled in the land since the 1970s and had been given legal titles by the government in the 1990s — ironically after MIC representation.
Most people worked in numerous small scale family-based industries that dot the settlement and had migrated from Perak and Kedah, uprooted after the estates they worked in were redeveloped.
Ganabatirao’s father was uprooted from Teluk Intan while his wife B. Buvaneswary is from Sungei Petani.
His brother Papparaidu, a councillor under the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor government and a DAP member, did most of the talking for his brother, his eyes always straying to the plainclothes police officers hanging in the background.
Ganabatirao and the four others were detained since December 13, 2007 for leading the largest Indian uprising in the country on Nov 25, 2007, that helped mobilise Indian support for the opposition Pakatan Rakyat.
He and 12 other detainees were freed by Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak on his first day as the sixth prime minister three days ago.
Both Ganabatirao and Kengadharan still have their law offices as their wives had been paying the rent but they face a tough job to get their once prospering practices going again.
For one they cannot leave their respective districts without permission and that would hinder their legal practice as most of their work is in Kuala Lumpur.
Most of all they will have to adjust to living as “free” men again because in the detention camp every thing was regulated — from waking up to eating, exercising, reading and lights off time.
But now they have to create a new routine. It will take some adjusting to get use to the fact that now they can turn off the light as they like.
Buvaneswary says she will not stop Ganabatirao from restarting his political work, if he wants to.
But friends of Genga as Kengadharan is popularly known, says he might concentrate on his legal practice.
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