PKR men join vigil for Waytha

They condemn Pakatan reps for failing to use their influence to gain support for the Hindraf blueprint.

SUNGAI PETANI: Two local PKR leaders last night joined a candle light vigil to show their support for Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy, who is on a hunger strike to pressure Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat to endorse his organisation’s demands for policies benefitting the Indian community.

M Palaniappan and M Sagathevan of PKR Jerai said the Hindraf blueprint was nothing more than what working class Indians deserved.

Palaniappan is the deputy chairman and Sagathevan the youth chief of PKR Jerai.

They condemned Indians in Pakatan who hold public office but who have yet to use their influence to gather political support for the blueprint. Palaniappan called them “ungrateful lots who have betrayed the Indian cause”.

They said it was sad that the Hindraf leader had to resort to a hunger strike to draw attention to the needs of marginalised Indians.

Waythamoorthy, who has stationed himself at a Hindu temple in Rawang, started his fast on March 10. He takes nothing but water.

“There should have been no need for him to resort to such an extreme action,” said Palaniappan. “But he has been forced to do so by both BN and Pakatan.”

The vigil was organised by Hindraf’s Kedah chapter. Participants prayed for Waythamoorthy’s health and the wellbeing of the Indian community in Malaysia.

Hindraf Kedah leader R Ramu said Waythamoorthy could go into a coma in 10 days’ time if he continued with his fast.

Sagathevan criticised Pakatan and NGO representatives who demand better wages for foreign workers while ignoring Hindraf’s blueprint.

“They call themselves human rights activists but they completely ignore the plight of their fellow citizens,” he said.

PS Krishnan, an official in the Baling office of Malaysia Hindu Sangam, said neither BN nor Pakatan could claim that it cared for the wellbeing of Indians until it had endorsed the blueprint.

“Indians are fed up with lip service,” he said.

To express their solidarity with Waythamoorthy, several members of Hindraf Kedah will go on a 24-hour hunger strike beginning at 9am this Friday at a temple in Paya Besar, Kulim.