Hindraf wants moratorium on actions against Indians

The Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia is calling on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to announce a moratorium on evictions, demolitions and police actions concerning the Indian community until terms agreed upon in the agreement with Hindraf are implemented.

Referring to Sunday’s incident in which Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) staff allegedly smoked, wore shoes, damaged and removed deities from the 101-year-old Golden Triangle Muneswarar temple at Jalan P Ramlee in Kuala Lumpur, Hindraf adviser N Ganesan said this was “analogous” with the recent shooting of five suspected Indian gang members in Penang.

“These are exactly the kind of violations that we seek to avoid with Waythamoorthy’s participation in government and with new solutions to the underlying problems promised in the agreement,” he said in a statement today.

Calling on the PM to “move forward positively” he said Najib must “announce unambiguously a formal moratorium on the various evictions, demolitions and police actions on the one hand and provide the needed support to get the implementation of the agreement moving forward on the other”.

In April, both Najib and Hindraf, led by P Waythamoorthy (left) inked an agreement, a five-year blueprint to "uplift the Indian Malaysian community".

Following this, Waythamoorthy was handpicked by Najib as a senator following the 13 general election to become deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

However, many fellow cabinet ministers had called for Waythamoorthy’s resignation and even Najib himself advised him to “toe the government line” after he questioned the shooting.

Citing inadequate numbers of Indian admission into matriculation, eviction notices served to temples and former estate workers while “police want a freehand to do what they think is right”, Ganesan said all these fell within the targets for correction in the BN-Hindraf agreement, promised “so loudly” by the BN before the general election.

“The Indian public see that now Waythamoorthy is not allowed to take public positions on the issues he is in government for on the one hand, and the government implementation of the agreement seems to be getting nowhere on the other hand.

“So, they are all asking ‘has Prime Minister Najib cheated us all?’...Hindraf would also like an answer to the question,” he said.