Uthayakumar’s last try

Hindraf founder P. Uthayakumar needs an Anwar Ibrahim boost to revive his sagging political fortune

Baradan Kuppusamy, The Star

AFTER a spectacular showing with a big protest in Novem­­ber 2007, Hindraf founder P. Uthayakumar is largely a spent force today after trying to go it alone with his unregistered Human Rights Party.

Lately, he has been trying to get Pakatan Rakyat leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim interested by inviting him to Chetty Padang in Klang on April 22 and into some kind of collaboration but Anwar is cautious of any association with Hindraf, the virulently anti-Umno movement.

For small but ambitious organisations like his, the message is clear – there is no political life outside of membership in one of the political parties of the two main political coalitions – Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.

With the general election looming, Hindraf is desperate to strike a deal with either PKR or DAP but Uthaya­kumar has made enemies left and right in both parties by calling their Indian leaders mandors.

He has been virulent in his criticism of Pakatan, a coalition he should have worked with for his own future.

Besides, DAP is grooming its own Indian leader in V. Ganabatirau, a lawyer who was detained with Uthaya­kumar under the ISA and is now a rising star in the DAP.

Besides him, the DAP has yet another ex-Hindraf activist in M. Manoharan, the Kota Alam Shah assemblyman who won the seat while under ISA detention in 2008.

However, he is not in the good books of DAP heavyweights like Dr P. Ramasamy because of his continued association with Uthaya­kumar.

But Manoharan has the support of Karpal Singh, the DAP national chairman, which counts for a lot as Selangor leaders try to remove him as an election candidate.

The Indian leaders in the PKR are quite different and can’t tolerate Uthayakumar’s alleged racism and anti-Umno rhetoric, which Malays see as anti-Malay and consequently thwarts any association with PKR.

Nobody in the Pakatan parties, therefore, wants to associate with Hindraf and Uthayakumar, fearing they might lose the all-important Malay voters if they are seen as coveting the Hindraf.

Besides, Hindraf is splintered with breakaway factions.

The first to break away was Datuk R.S. Thanentheran, who formed Makkal Sakthi Party Malaysia and got the blessing of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Uthayakumar’s brother P. Way­-tha­murthy is in self-imposed exile and commutes between London and Singapore trying to be an exiled leader while major differences have emerged between Uthayakumar and the so-called national secretary P. Ramesh.

Hindraf was founded by Uthaya­kumar in 2007 after he toured the country and was enthusiastically received by Indians.

But that enthusiasm has changed dramatically.

At that time, the community was angry with MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu over the marginalisa­­-tion of Indians from the economic mainstream and the tearing down of Hindu temples and shrines.

Today, none of these are issues that preoccupy the community – Samy Vellu has retired, temples are no longer demolished and Indians are getting government attention like never before.

The sea of change in the political landscape has undercut the initial appeal of Hindraf and Uthayakumar, although he still enjoys the support of hardcore loyalists. They, however, remain small and splintered.

Uthayakumar formed his Human Rights Party and has tried to go it alone by trying to get Indians in some parliamentary constituencies to migrate to chosen constituencies that he had hoped to contest and give the community a bigger voice.

The scheme is more easily said than done.

Not one constituency has Indians as a majority, although they are a sizeable number in about 40 constituencies where Hindraf can field its candidates and split the votes, mostly in favour of Barisan.

Uthayakumar organised several pro­­tests in Putrajaya, hoping it would rekindle the November 2007 type of protest but they ended in failure.

He is now playing his final card by inviting Anwar to Chetty Padang and asking the Pakatan leader to enumerate the things he would do for the Indian community in the first 100 days of Pakatan capturing Putrajaya.

Uthayakumar needs a front seat ticket to the biggest political show – the coming general election – but is very likely to miss it if he can’t get Anwar to allocate a seat for him or one of his men.