Hindraf at PM's open house

Hindraf members at the Umno raya open house in Kuala Lumpur today. — Picture by Choo Choy May

By Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 - Some 300 Hindraf supporters attended the Cabinet open house today to ask Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi to release the Hindraf 5 and allow their chairman P.Waytha Moorthy to return to Malaysia safely.

Waytha is currently in exile in London. His wife, K. Shanti, gave Abdullah a gift basket containing a teddy bear and a Hari Raya card, which Hindraf claims has 300 signatories.

According to ideological coordinator W. Sambulingam, the card extended the group's "forgiveness" to the prime minister for arresting the five Hindraf leaders under the Internal Security Act and asked "in the spirit of Hari Raya, that he release them."

"When I shook his hand, I asked him when he would release the detainees and when my husband would be allowed to return home," Shanti told reporters.

"He said he would let me know on another day," she added.

Shanti was accompanied by her six-year-old daughter and about 70 supporters who were allowed into the dining hall.

However, some 200-odd supporters were not allowed in. Shanti said that, as a protest, none of the Hindraf supporters ate at the open house.

"We are not here to eat your food, we are here to seek the release of our leaders," she said.

Sambulingam added that this was yet another attempt to avoid the group.

"We have his open invitation to the event, so we don't understand why the officials were trying to block us," he said.

Abdullah had earlier confirmed that the Hindraf supporters had first been stopped at the door but were then allowed in.

"I cannot have a special meeting with anyone. It is an open house," he said when asked if he had met them.

The Hindraf group and about a dozen members of an anti-ISA group, who came clad in black t-shirts with slogans such as "I'm with RPK" and "Say no to ISA", had gathered from 11am outside PWTC.

However, earlier plans by Hindraf to gather 10,000 people today failed to materialise.

-Malaysiainsider