Hindraf Members Deliver Memorandum At Parliament Over Leader's Passport

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 (Bernama) -- Eleven supporters of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) caused a commotion at Parliament today when they wanted to submit a memorandum to the Speaker seeking his intervention to have the government reactivate the passport of their leader.

The group claimed that the passport of P. Waytha Moorthy, who is now in exile in Britain, had been revoked, and as such, he could not return to Malaysia to celebrate Deepavali with his family.

Through the intervention of several leaders of the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition, they were allowed to enter Parliament at 10am after waiting over an hour outside the main gate.

The group then passed the memorandum to PKR vice president R. Sivarasa to be handed over to Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.

They then left.

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Syed Hamid denies lying about Hindraf leader’s passport

By SIM LEOI LEOI

PUTRAJAYA: Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar has denied he lied about Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader P. Waythamoorthy’s passport.

He said there had previously been a directive for the Hindraf man to surrender his passport to the Malaysian High Commission in Britain, where he is now living in self exile.

“The order was for him to surrender his passport so that it could be cancelled and we could bring him home for a warrant of arrest to be executed against him under the Internal Security Act. However, he never went.

“I never lied. The passport was never cancelled when I gave my first statement. How can it be cancelled if he never came to the High Commission? We would need to have take it back and stamp the word ‘cancelled’ on it.

“However, I subsequently gave the order in my first meeting as Home Minister -- and I am sure they would have implemented it -- for this directive to be rescinded,” he told reporters after attending the Rela Hari Raya open house at Taman Warisan here on Wednesday.

“He can travel and come back to face the consequences of his action then. They (Hindraf) have been distorting and misinfoming (people on) the issue,” Syed Hamid alleged, responding to claims made by Hindraf coordinator R.S. Thanenthiran.

Thanenthiran said group, which has since been declared illegal by the Malaysian Government, had a letter from the United Kingdom border agency saying that it had received a notice of cancellation against the passport because Waythamoorthy was being sought for “criminal charges.”

In the letter dated Sept 23, it was stated that the British Embassy in Kuala Lumpur was notified of the cancellation on March 14.