Indians must go beyond communal thinking

R Kengadharan

Unless we Indians are prepared to make the effort to undertake the necessary changes, we may have to pay the political price.

At this point in time we have no common goals or objectives as we are fragmented and divided. That division is now quite alarming and disturbing.

For the last 55 years we have gone through national humiliation and defeat. We are still struggling to resolve to redeem our national pride.

While this would require greater effort, imagination, competence and creativity, there isn't an aggressive personality noticeable within the community who is a pragmatist willing to compromise, change, adapt and revive strategy.

There isn't the courage and vigour to work towards achieving non-racial democracy.

Any qualitative change will only emerge if our ideas go straight to the hearts.

No change would be effective if it fails to appeal to the community.

Maneuvering on prejudice is not rational. We strongly believe that Malaysia was conceived as belonging to Malaysians and any desired change must be for the greater benefit of all Malaysians regardless of race or religion.

In the present circumstances it is imperative that we must appreciate and correctly understand our current situation and position.

Is it correct and true to say that the Indians are being driven out of everything and could democratic socialism correct the many imbalances suffered by the community?

What has caused communalism in Malaysia? It is none other than profit motivation.

We must forget to work on the basis of race as a political party. Why the Indians must become entrenched in communal politics and is it wrong to adopt a non-communal ideology and would it weaken us?

This preponderance of thought that only a particular organisation is fit to defend the cause of the Indians is an extravagant claim.

If we desire to do what is right and fair we must be anxious to adjust and remove the present imbalances.

The community as a whole must distant itself from the policies of divide and rule and must help to demolish the old political structure which is ingrained in many.

The communal tendencies and prejudices today gravely influence political thinking.

As a consequence, Indian based political parties, NGOs and movements are often inclined to express themselves communally and when we invite and inculcate non-communal policies, attacks, libel and slanders are launched.

While the dire needs and plight of Indians must not be ignored nor shelved, it is imperative and necessary for Indians to affiliate to non-communal ideologies so as to secure their future permanently in the upcoming 13th general election.

Don’t jump the gun, DAP man tells detractors

V Ganabatirao dismisses objections against the possibility of him being fielded in Kota Alam Shah.

PETALING JAYA: Selangor DAP official V Ganabatirao today admonished those calling on the party not to field him for the Kota Alam Shah state seat, saying they were jumping the gun.

Reacting to statements by eight DAP branch leaders in Selangor, he said the objection was premature because the party had yet to announce the names of candidates for the coming election.

“I myself do not know whether I will be fielded to contest in Kota Alam Shah,” he told FMT. “Candidacy is decided by the central executive committee. It is too premature to speculate.”

Yesterday, the leaders of DAP branches in Taman Gembira, Klang, Teluk Pulai, Bayu Tinggi, Taman Chi Liung Indah, Southern Klang, Persiaran Raja Muda Musa and Ehsan said they were against Ganabatirao’s candidacy in Kota Alam Shah because he was not a local man familiar with the grassroots.

They warned the party that it would lose the seat if it were to field him there.

Ganabatirao is Selangor DAP’s legal bureau chief. He is also a director in the state-owned Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd and an aide to Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim.

The Kota Alam Shah seat is currently held by M Manoharan, also from DAP. Both Ganabatirao and Manoharan rose to prominence as among the early leaders of Hindraf and were imprisoned under the Internal Security Act for their part in the massive 2007 demonstration in the streets of Kuala Lumpur against the marginalisation of Indians.

Ganabatirao currently holds the post of advisor to Malaysian Indian Voice, an NGO linked to Pakatan Rakyat.

He rejected his detractors’ claim that members of the eight Selangor branches were against his candidacy in Kota Alam Shah, saying the branch leaders were had their own agenda and were expressing their personal opinions.

“The objections are individual opinions of people with their own agenda,” he said. “The objections are not resolutions from the branches.”

Another DAP official confirmed that the party had not finalised its candidates’ list for Selangor.

S’gor DAP branches reject Ganapathirau

Selangor DAP branches warn the party leadership that DAP would lose the Kota Alam Shah seat if Ganapathirau, a former ISA detainee, is fielded.

KLANG: Eight DAP branches here have called on the party leadership not to field V Ganapathirau (photo) as candidate in Kota Alam Shah state seat in the next general election.

The branches, all from the state constituency, warned the party leadership that the DAP would lose the seat if Ganapathirau, a former detainee of now repealed Internal Security Act, was fielded.

The DAP eight branches, with collectively some 500 members, openly opposed Ganapathirau are Taman Gembira, Klang, Teluk Pulai, Bayu Tinggi, Taman Chi Liung Indah, Southern Klang, Persiaran Raja Muda Musa and Ehsan.

The group spokesman Ivan Ho said they were all against Ganapathirau because he was not a local familiar with the party grassroots leaders and members, or constituents in the area.

Ho said Ganapathirau does not have close rapport with party grassroots in the constituency, a winning factor so crucial for a potential candidate.

He urged the party leadership to respect grassroots sentiments and not to force in parachute candidates like Ganapathirau in Kota Alam Shah.

“DAP members and constituents don’t know him much.

“The party should not push us to accept Ganapathirau.

“We don’t want him,” Ho, the Taman Gembira branch head, told FMT.

Kota Alam Shah incumbent assemblyman is M Manoharan, a protégé of DAP national chairman Karpal Singh.

It’s learnt Selangor DAP leadership under Teresa Kok planned to replace Manoharan, also a former ISA detainee, with Ganapathirau.

Ganapathirau is a staunch confidant of deputy secretary general and Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy.

Not an Indian hero

Taman Chi Liung Indah head K Yogasigamany reminded the state party leadership that time had lapsed to promote the Ganapathirau as a former ISA detainee and his so-called involvement in Hindraf Makkal Sakti.

He said DAP grassroots members and constituents know that Ganapathirau, who now leads NGO Malaysian Indian voice, was not a Hindraf leader.

“Constituents have realised that Ganapathirau was never the Hindraf leader or Indian hero.

“He is no more relevant for Indian community.

“It will be futile and fatal for party leadership to field Ganapathirau in Kota Alam Shah.

“The leadership should drop the idea altogether,” Yogasigamany told FMT.

Indraf brothers’ assailants are PKR members

In view of this, MIC Youth is demanding an apology from deputy chief minister P Ramasamy for blaming BN.

KUALA LUMPUR: The attack on two Indian Rights Action Force (Indraf) leaders in Klang was carried out by PKR members.

MIC Youth information chief S Subramaniam confirmed that the three assailants who attacked Malaysian Indian Voice (MIV) president V Ganabathi Rao and his brother Pappa Raidu were members of the opposition party.

“This proves that Pakatan Rakyat leaders practiced ‘dirty’ politics to garner support from the Indian community in the upcoming general election,” he told FMT.

According to Subramaniam, the three men were among 200 Indians who joined PKR during the Hulu Selangor by-election in 2010.

“I was told that the fracas was because of political differences between them and had no connection with Barisan Nasional,” he said.

However, Subramaniam could not confirm from which PKR division the trio were from. “As far I know, they should be members from the Kapar or Hulu Selangor divisions,” he said.

“This is a simple example of how Pakatan leaders make baseless accusations against BN to gain votes,” he added.

Last Thursday, the brothers were attacked by the three men as they were heading towards their car after attending a funeral in Taman Mutiara, Klang.

Ganabatirao suffered injuries to his nose. He was discharged on June 1 while his brother who required surgery for a broken hand was discharged on Sunday from a private hospital in Klang.

Ramasamy must apologise

Meanwhile, Subramaniam also called on Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy to apologise for blaming BN for the attack.

“Ramasamy should have checked his facts before issuing such a statement. MIC Youth will give him one week to apologise, otherwise we will call him ‘Mr Liar’,” he added.

Ramasamy, who is also DAP deputy secretary-general, had linked the assault to the Indraf 2.0 rally in Brickfields, claiming that certain quarters viewed it as a threat.

Contacted later, Ramasamy said he had mentioned that the incident was “inspired” by BN and never claimed that the attackers were from BN.

“I will not apologise. BN should apologise for failing to curb a spate of political violence,” he added.

Similarly, Ganabatirao also believed that the attackers were “instructed” by the BN leadership to carry out the attack.

He claimed that one of the three men had previously persuaded him to leave DAP and join BN.

Subramaniam also took a swipe at PKR vice-president N Surendran for claiming that MIC Youth were gangsters.

“He (Surendran) accused MIC Youth as gangsters but it seems PKR members are murderers,” he added in reference to Ganabatirao’s previous statement that two of the three men who assaulted him were arrested in connection with a murder case in Klang.

Tale of the three newest Indian champions

R Thuraisingam, via e-mail

From the mighty Hindraf gathering of about 100,000 people in 2007 to an odd assortment of old folk and bussed in students making up the 1,000 people at the recent Indraf gathering in 2012, it seems that ‘H’ does make a difference. This aside, much has changed since 2007. However, the fundamental motivation of both these events clearly shows that fighting in 2007 for the right of Hindus to worship and fighting for Anwar to be PM in 2012 drastically affects the number of Indians supporting each event.

The so-called non-political Indian leaders showcasing themselves at the small self-indulgent Indraf gathering on May 27, 2012 were Haji Thasleem, R Kengadharan and V Ganabatirau. Thasleem has only ever played a role in getting the government to ban a book, Interlok, from schools which he felt teachers would not be able to teach without Indian students being emotionally affected.

After manually amending the book, freshly reprinting the book after many many changes were made, the Cabinet decided to withdraw the book from schools long after Thasleem had abandoned the issue to pursue grander aims. Even when the book was withdrawn, he had to compete with that other champion, ‘Talappa’ Rajaretinam over who really deserved credit for getting a book banned.

The two had fought over NIAT or the National Interlok Action Team ending with Rajaretinam accusing Thasleem of refusing to dissolve NIAT to further his selfish personal agenda and gain cheap political mileage. He claimed this was also evident when Thasleem announced that he is joining DAP using the NIAT platform.

What Thasleem did before getting books banned was somewhat different. His company TMI Nusantara, which Thasleem obtained full control of in 2000, was a top project management consultant (PMC) that were given huge BN Government contracts to manage. This list of BN projects included the Bukit Jalil sports complex, Perak SEDC and the International Islamic University.

Proving that he is nothing but sly, Thasleem was happy to be a pure Bumiputera at that point as it helped him obtain consultancy incomes that he would never have dreamed of before. Needless to say that at that point just a few years ago, he had not yet discovered his ‘Indianness’. Nowadays, as clearly seen at the Indraf gathering on May 27, Thasleem seems to have fully discovered his Indianness and abandoned his Muslim robes in favour of a more Indian Kurta.

This aside, the most interesting project was the construction of the AIMST University, the brainchild of former MIC president, S Samy Vellu. The construction of this project was estimated and recorded in black and white to be RM230 million. This staggering sum was what it would cost for Samy Vellu to build his legacy of erecting a physical monument to his focus on educating Indians.

Under Thasleem’s leadership as overall Project Manager, the cost of building AIMST University ballooned by more than 200% to RM495 million. As the lead consultant, Thasleem personally oversaw and approved this increase in the ‘cost’ of the project by RM265 million. Samy Vellu then had to solve the problem of raising RM265 million as Thasleem had convinced him that the millions more were critically needed.

Because of this, there were many police reports lodged by Indians alleging financial mismanagement and misappropriation as well as on irregularities relating to the awarding of contracts. These allegations relating to the major cost increases led Bukit Aman Commercial Crime division director Koh Hong Sun to investigate.

As we all know, Samy Vellu then turned to the Indian community to raise this RM265 million. Each MIC branch, led by usually working class branch chairman, were instructed to raise RM11,000 each otherwise their branch renewals would be rejected. Samy also went direct to the community to raise money, collecting as little as RM1 from the man on the street to hundreds of thousands from corporate figures. Even the BN government stepped in to contribute RM300 million of the total cost of RM495 million.

Thasleem’s fees alone for the project, as overall Project Manager, estimated at a conservative 1% of development cost, also skyrocketed from RM2.3 million to RM5 million. Given his experience, Thasleem would have also made millions from unscrupulous contractors bidding for sub-contracts. Thasleem is purported to have pocketed between RM21 million to RM28.5 million from this project alone.

Please remember that the money he was paid and that he pocketed was collected by Samy Vellu from poor Indians throughout the country. When Thasleem had obtained all he could from AIMST, and when he could no longer compete for projects, he was angry and this is exactly when he decided to go against the BN.

Without shame, he tells tall tales about how he gives thousands to Tamil schools in Perak but he conveniently chose to forget the millions that he squeezed out of the Indian community from the building of the AIMST University alone. This millions that the Indians gave, be it MIC or non-MIC members are not plucked from trees but hard earned money of those people.

If he is true to his religion, as he proudly claims to be, then the first thing he needs to ask himself is whether he is sincere and is free of any baggage before blatantly accusing others in his desperate attempt to become a champion of the Indians.

The other two Indraf opportunists are cut from a different cloth, or so most Indians believed before the Indraf gathering. They were arrested under the ISA and went to jail with three other compatriots. They were educated middle-class professionals who took a stand against the then Abdullah administration and they were lionised by the Indian community.

That was five long years ago. At the recent Indraf gathering, they allowed themselves to be manipulated by Anwar’s divide and rule, and publicly denounced their comrade-in-arms, P Uthayakumar, calling him crazy and deluded in the process. From being two men fighting for temples, they selfishly became two men fighting for their personal place in the limelight.

Anwar correctly calculated that these two were intoxicated by their 2007 popularity and knew they could not live without the publicity, without being on stage and in the limelight. Anwar, as ever, was always ready to just provide the setting.

These two former heroes were happy for Anwar to completely ignore their 10-point demands. It should be noted that Kenga and Gana had already agreed to Anwar’s demands to water down Hindraf’s original 18-point demands so that Anwar would be more comfortable sharing the stage with them.

This is the same way Anwar had repeatedly ignored Uthayakumar’s two recent invitations to come and speak to the Indian community in Klang and explain in detail what specific plans he has for Indians. Anwar did not come because he does not have any plans to address the Indian community’s challenges.

Kenga and Gana even completely ignored their other Hindraf compratriot, M Manogaran, who was conspicuously missing from the event. R Kengadharan and V Ganabatirau danced with Anwar on stage, so we all know the writing is on the wall, they will continue to dance to Anwar’s tune until Anwar can no longer offer them a high-profile stage. At this point, they will probably go groveling to BN as they have in the past.

From knowing the true hearts and minds of the these three latest champions; Thasleem, Kengadharan and Ganabatirau, my question is where will the Indian community be heading towards without Indian leaders who have courage and conviction and who have only the interests of the Indian community truly and firmly lodged in their hearts…?

Indraf brothers assault: Three surrender to police

According to lawyer V Ganabatirao, who was one of those attacked, the suspects are also allegedly wanted for a muder case in Klang.

PETALING JAYA: Three men sought over the the assault of Indraf 2.0 organisers, V Ganabatirao and V Pappa Raidu last Wednesday, turned themselves in at the Klang police last night.

In the incident, Ganabatirao and his brother Pappa Raidu, were attacked by three men as they were heading towards their car after attending a funeral in Taman Mutiara, Klang.

Ganabatirao suffered injuries to his nose. He was discharged on June 1 while his brother who required surgery for a broken hand was discharged yesterday from a private hospital in Klang.

“My sources told me that the three had surrendered themselves at Klang Utara police station last night. The police want us to attend an identity parade at 5pm today.

“Three weeks before attacking us, two of the three who assaulted us were arrested in connection to a murder case in Klang,” claimed Ganabatirao.

Ganabatirao, a former ISA detainee and practising lawyer, is currently a Shah Alam City councillor and a special officer to Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim.

Pappa Raidu, a businessman, is also a Shah Alam City councillor. Both the brothers are actively involved in Malaysian Indian – Voice (MI-Voice), an Indian NGO.

Indraf brothers assaulted, BN blamed

DAP's P Ramasamy claims that the violent beating of V Ganabatirao and his brother Papa Raidu was 'BN-inspired'.

PETALING JAYA: The assault on two Indian Rights Action Force (Indraf) leaders last night was inspired by the Barisan Nasional government, alleged DAP deputy secretary-general P Ramasamy.

He claimed that Indraf leaders, V Ganabatirao and his brother Pappa Raidu, were assaulted as they were gaining support among the Indians masses.

“Some quarters felt that the success of the recent Indraf 2.0 gathering was a threat to their standing,” he added, without naming anyone.

Last night, Ganabatirao and Pappa Raidu were attacked by three men, after the duo attended a funeral in Taman Mutiara, Klang.

It was believed that the attack was linked to the Indraf 2.0 rally in Brickfields on Sunday, which was attended by nearly 3,000 people.

A police report had been lodged over the assault and the brothers were currently warded at the Seri Kota Medical Centre.

Apart from Ramasamy, DAP secretary-general Lim Kit Siang, vice-chairman M Kulsegaran and Selangor state chief Teresa Kok visited the duo today.

Ramasamy, who is also Penang deputy chief minister, urged Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to condemn the attacks and called upon the police to carry out their duties without fear and favour.

“If no action is taken, the Indian community’s anger against the government will be further aroused,” he said.

Ramasamy said this was not the first time a Pakatan leader was assaulted, referring to the brawl that occurred between PKR and MIC Youth members at the Prime Minister’s Office early this month.

The brawl on May 3 left Puchong PKR division chief S Murali with a severe eye injury.

‘Beaten with steering lock and plastic chair’

Relating his ordeal, Ganabatirao said the assailants had used car steering wheel lock and a plastic chair to beat them.

The attacks, he added, had left him with nasal bone fracture and bruises all over.

“My brother suffered worse. He was assaulted so badly that he fainted at the scene. Pappa Raidu’s left arm is fractured and his shoulder is now dislocated. A surgery is scheduled for him later today,” he told FMT.

Whether he recognised any of his assailants, Ganabatirao said he recognised one of the men. “He used to persuade me to join BN in the past,” he alleged.

Northern Klang district police chief Supt Shukor Sulong, when contacted, said: “We’ll investigate the matter. Right now, we are looking for suspects.”

1,000 Indians voice support for Pakatan

1,000 Indians voice support for Pakatan

(Malaysiakini) Hindraf splinter group Malaysian Indian Voice (MIV) today held their first Hindraf-inspired rally, dubbed Indian Rights Action Force (Indraf) 2.0 in Brickfields today, with more than 1,000 packing a hall to voice support for Pakatan Rakyat.

Entitled ‘Unity Road with Pakatan Rakyat to Putrajaya’, the rally was co-organised by a coalition of pro-Pakatan groups and individuals, such as National Indians Action Team (Niat) chairperson Thasleem Mohamed and Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy under a newly-setup Indraf protem committee.

Pakatan bigwigs graced the event, that is believed to be Pakatan’s own way of attempting to replicate Hindu rights group Hindraf’s mass mobilisation of the Indian community in 2007.
The event began at about 3pm with the singing of the national anthem, while the cheering crowd waved flags of the Pakatan parties.

They also displayed banners with their 10-point demands, which  among others read ‘Hindraf will never bury the voice of Indian unity’, ‘The government should plan and implement a comprehensive policy for retirees’, and 'The government should put in place relevant measures to preserve and develop Tamil schools, language and literature’.

The MIV leaders, many of whom are Pakatan members, heaped praises on the opposition pact in their speeches and repeatedly urged the attendees to support Pakatan.

MIV chairperson V Raidu (at podium), in his speech, commended Pakatan for successfully resolving a list of longstanding problems affecting the Indian community within four years of their administration in four states.

He also announced that the Selangor government has approved 120 sites for Indian temples.

“Let us be united to bring change and take over Putrajaya,” he said to a roar of applause.
In between relay of speeches by more than 10 speakers from Pakatan and MIV, some periods were devoted to the singing of a Tamil motivational song and the chanting of “Long live Pakatan”, “Long live Indraf”, “Long live MIV”.

Among the Pakatan leaders who attended the rally were opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar and Selangor exco member Ronnie Liu.
'Gov't must provide appropriate affirmative aid'
R Kengandharan, who was an Internal Security Act detainee under Hindraf, noted that a rightful government must provide appropriate affirmative aid to an underprivileged group, but that was not the case with the BN government.

“If you have four children in a family and one is handicapped, then extra attention must be given to the handicapped one,” he said.

He added that the Indian community has “wasted 55 years” with MIC and the time has come to clamour for change.

Meanwhile, Mohamad, or fondly known as Mat Sabu, in his speech accused the government of stirring up racial sentiments again as the general election looms.

He said the demonisation of Bersih’s Malay supporters as backing a Hindu woman is a clear instance that shows Umno cannot abandon racial politics.

“But this is not a racial issues, this is about people’s rights. We will not waver but continue to strive to change the politics of this country,” he said.

The three-hour rally concluded with a round of cheers for Pakatan and a replay of the motivational song.

Indian NGOs back Bersih

The Malaysian Indian Voice says that the time has come for the community to teach BN a 'bitter lesson'.

KUALA LUMPUR: Two NGOs, The Malaysian Indian Voice (MIV) an WargaAman, have pledged their support for the Bersih 3.0 rally slated for April 28 at Dataran Merdeka.

MIV, which would be organising the Indian Rights Action Force (Indraf) 2.0 rally next month, said that it backed Bersih because equality and justice could only exist in a clean and transparent democratic system.

Speaking at a press conference here, MIV president and former Internal Security Act detainee V Ganabitarau urged all Indians in Malaysia to lend their support for Bersih’s cause.

“As a community which has been discriminated and marginalised for more than 50 years, we only have one choice… to teach Barisan Nasional a bitter lesson,” he said.

Also present at the press conference were National Indian Action Team (NIAT) chairman Thasleem Mohd Ibrahim and MIV leaders V Raidu, A Prakash and David Bala.

Ganabatirao said the Election Commission was not independent and BN had been manipulating the commission in its favour.

“Hence, this rally is important to ensure a free and fair election,” he added.

Meanwhile, WargaAman, a coalition of 20 Indian NGOs, was backing Bersih to keep the pressure on the government to reform the electoral process.

In a statement, the coalition’s sceretary-general S Barathidasan said the EC had not addressed issues related to postal votes, election offences and measures to end dirty politics.

‘RM30mil to back BN’: Ganabatirao sees red

The MI-Voice leader denies an allegation that he has agreed to help BN win Indian votes for a sum of RM30 million.

PETALING JAYA: V Ganabatirao, the co-founder of Malaysian Indian-Voice (MI-Voice), denied speculations that his NGO will help Barisan Nasional to win Indian votes in the next general election.

It was alleged that MI-Voice would be aiding BN to rake in Indian votes in return for RM30 million.
However, Ganabatirao hit the roof when asked about this.

“The allegation is absolutely ridiculous and nonsensical,” thundered the DAP member.
On the contrary, he added that such allegations proved that BN feared him and his influence.

According to a highly-placed source, MI-Voice had agreed to work for BN following negotiations with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s special officer, P Ravin.

The negotiation allegedly took place in Putrajaya in June beetween the special officer and Ganabatirao’s brother, Raidu.

The source claimed that Raidu had proposed starting up something similar to the Cabinet Indian task force and threfore the RM30 million was needed.

“I want to sue those who made the claim,” said Ganabatirao, who was among the five Hindraf leaders jailed under the Internal Security Act following a mammoth street protest in 2007.

He claimed that those spreading these rumours were attempting to kill his political career.
However, he admitted to bumping into Ravin once but that was about eight months ago when he was at the Registrar of Societies (ROS) office in Putrajaya.

“I have kept away from BN and MIC even though they have been attempting to lure me into MIC.
“Just because I met (former MIC president S) Samy Vellu accidentally during lunch several months ago doesn’t mean that I am joining MIC. But there were rumours,” he said.

He also claimed that DAP was offering him a state seat in Selangor and therefore this rendered the allegation baseless.

Ganabatirao, a lawyer by profession, is also a director of the Selangor-state owned mining company, Kumpulan Semesta.

Following their release from ISA detention in 2009, Ganabatirao had a fallout with Hindraf’s P Uthayakumar, leading the former to venture on his own.

‘Boss’ Anwar vows to look after Indian community

Opposition Leader Anwar renews pledge to defend rights of the Indians.

KLANG: Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim renewed his pledge to defend the rights of Indian community at the Malaysian Indian Voice (MI-Voice) gathering held at Dewan Hamzah here last night.

Speaking to a crowd of 2,000 predominantly Indians, he said: “We in Pakatan Rakyat will defend the rights of the Indians no matter what happens.”

He followed up by brushing aside Umno’s allegations that he was a foreign agent of America, the Jews and the others, by saying: “I am not an agent, I am Sivaji the Boss.”

Sivaji the Boss is a hugely successful Tamil movie acted by Tamil superstar Rajnikanth in which the protagonist fights for the rights of the people.

He also blamed Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak of dwelling in gutter politics by allowing a sex tape to be released by the trio of Datuk T, in which they had claimed Anwar was the man having sex with a foreign woman. Anwar had denied this.

“Najib is a real ‘pandikutti’,” he said, drawing laughter and applause from the crowd. Pandikutti is a Tamil word for piglet.

Anwar dubbed the MI-Voice as the new spirit of Indians that would assist Pakatan’s path to Putrajaya.

Later, MI-Voice advisor V Ganabatirao and his brother V Raidu, who is the protem chairman of MI-Voice, pledged their support for Pakatan and submitted a 10-point memorandum to Anwar.

Senior Pakatan Rakyat leaders attended the function last night, including Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, Klang MP Charles Santiago, Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, Teluk Intan MP M Manogaran and Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo.