By Terence Netto,
SINGAPORE: Following a cordial meetingP.-Waythamoorthy in Singapore yesterday, Hindu Action Front (Hindraf) chairman P. Waythamoorthy and Pakatan Rakyat’s Zaid Ibrahim are optimistic that an understanding can be achieved between the two groups.
Pakatan Rakyat is the opposition coalition that groups PKR, DAP and PAS, the three parties that collectively denied the ruling Umno dominated BN government of its two-thirds majority in Parliament in the March 2008 general election.
zaid-ibrahimThe meeting between Waythamoothy and Zaid was initiated by individuals concerned to secure Hindraf’s backing for PR at the next general election (GE13) which is expected to be called much earlier than its due date in 2013.
It was held in Singapore because Waythamoorthy cannot return to Malaysia, his passport having been revoked by the Malaysian government in April 2008. He travels on a United Nations document issued by the British Government which granted him political asylum last year after the revocation of his passport.
Presently, he resides in London where he fled after five Hindraf activists, led by its founder P. Udayakumar, who is Waythamoorthy’s elder brother, were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in December 2007. All five detainees were released shortly after Najib Razak became Prime Minister last April.
Following the two-and-a-half-hour meeting between Waythamoorthy and Zaid in a hotel off swank Orchard Road, Zaid emerged to say he saw no difficulty in PR accommodating the essence of the Hindraf programme in its Common Policy Framework.
“An enlightened affirmative action programme would accommodate the concerns of Hindraf over the condition of the Indian Malaysian poor,” said Zaid in remarks to FreeMalaysiaToday immediately after hearing out Waythamoorthy.
“I was pleasantly surprised to discover from what Moorthy had to say that Hindraf’s demands are not extreme and are worthy of incorporation into the CPF,” he said.
To the question about the demand for the abolishment of Article 153 of the Federal Constitution affecting Malay rights, Zaid replied: “I told Moorthy not to go down that path, that even if you abolish the article a racist government would find ways to implement a warped version of it.”
“Moorthy came round to my argument that we should not try to exorcise phantoms but instead focus our energies on alleviating the plight of marginalised groups in Malaysia, period,” asserted Zaid.
“A PR government is determined on eradicating poverty irrespective of race or religion. It is how we will go about achieving this radical goal that is the subject of debate and argument,” he added.
As for Hindraf’s demand that the Federal government allocate RM50 billion over a five-year period for such Indian Malaysian concerns as aid to Tamil schools and training for the unskilled, Zaid said: “I told him that a demand like that straightaway constrains us in ways that will only expose us as inept and myopic.
“I held that we will use fiscal measures to address the plight of the marginalized in Malaysia such that there will be dedicated programmes to eradicate poverty,” explained Zaid.
Zaid has been tasked by PR to coordinate the drafting of the CPF in preparation for the GE13. In recent weeks, Zaid has led the effort to get PR registered with the Registrar of Societies.
With PR now a going concern, Zaid felt that a meeting with Hindraf’s chairman to explore common ground would be a further step in gaining the corporate body traction among marginalised groups.
Waythamoorthy said he agreed to meet Zaid because he recalled that the latter was the only Umno politician, at the height of Hindraf’s agitation for Indian Malaysian rights in November 2007, to suggest that the group deserved to be listened to.
Zaid, then MP for Kota Baru, was a member of a vaguely dissident group in Umno that included Shahrir Samad and Razaleigh Hamzah.
“I felt that that comment made him a person with whom we could discuss our concerns and come to some understanding,” said Waythamoorthy in separate remarks to FreeMalaysiaToday after the meeting.
Did Zaid’s spurning of Hindraf’s demands on Article 153 and a specified allocation of RM50 billion for Indian Malaysian concerns leave Waythamoorthy cold?
“Firstly, those demands were made in our eighteen-point programme to the prime minister in August 2007,” he explained.
“Those two were not implacable demands and they served the purpose of divesting Umno of its imperious ways. Consider how those demands and the gathering we held in November that year stirred Malaysians to vote for change in March the following year,” he argued.
“Those demands were a cry for attention and it succeeded in galvanizing people to react in favour of change. Now some parties are refuting that Hindraf’s demands and its demonstration of November 2007 were not the propelling events that they were,” he lamented.
“But I’m relieved to find that Zaid Ibrahim is not among the deniers. Instead he has affirmed us in our essential needs and if he can translate these concerns into the CPF, I don’t see why we can’t work together electorally,” he said.
Post discussion, the cordiality between the interlocutors for Hindraf and PR was enhanced over dinner that Zaid hosted at the hotel where he stayed.
“I’m glad I met him and we must take things forward from here,” was Zaid’s postprandial conclusion.
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