Warrant of arrest issued against Hindraf's Uthaya

 

A warrant of arrest has been issued against Hindraf de facto leader P Uthayakumar this morning for failing to attend a court hearing on the sedition charges against him.

He said this was despite the fact that his bailor had produced a medical certificate at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court at the 9am hearing today, saying that he is “not fit to attend court” from April 2 to May 17.

“Despite that, the deputy public prosecutor protested and said that I am attending ceramahs and campaigning. So she asked for a warrant of arrest and the judge (Ahmad Zamzani Mohd Zain) allowed the warrant of arrest,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.

However, Uthayakumar, who is contesting in Kota Raja and Seri Andalas, said his work was largely limited to his campaign operations room due to pain from his medical condition.

This consists of prolapsed discs and small tumours on his spinal cord, for which he has obtained medical leave from University Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital (HUKM) consultant neurosurgeon Dr Shanmugaraja Paramasvaran.

“There is a hotel room above our operations room. Every couple of hours, I would have to lie down. Either that or in the car, then the pain is released.

“The pain is in my backbone, then it (the prickling pain) radiates down to my lower legs. My last two or three toes get numb,” he said, adding that he was on painkillers.

'Campaigns in the operations room'

He stressed he campaigns mainly by holding briefings with his supporters in the operations room, who then fan out to canvass votes. He claims to have never held any public speeches outdoors.

The exceptions were when he was invited to meet about 20 supporters at their home and attended a temple function yesterday, he said.

Uthayakumar, who is expecting to be arrested at “any time”, claims the move is a backlash from his attack on his brother P Waythamoorthy, who has openly pledged support for BN.

He said 54 court cases against Hindraf supporters for participating in a rally against the controversial book ‘Interlok’ have been withdrawn in stages over the past two weeks, but in contrast, he said that the authorities are “coming down hard” on him.

Uthayakumar has been facing the charge since 2007 for allegedly writing a seditious letter addressed to then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

He has been issued an arrest warrant for failing to attend court before in August 2012, because at the time he was at the High Court trying to get the date for a stay application for his case.

REBUTTING ALLEGATIONS OF UTHAYA KUMAR

This press statement by Hindraf is made to rebut the unfounded, malicious attacks made by UthayaKumar against the movement’s office bearers.

Immediately after Uthaya Kumar was released from his ISA detention in 2009, he left the Hindraf organizations to form Human Rights Party. Since then, Hindraf organized 2 national conventions. He was conspicuously absent from these conventions.

Uthaya Kumar never participated in any of the 90 over road shows that was organized nationwide to seek the mandate to be sent to both PR / BN from 1st Aug 2012- Nov 25th 2012. He was even absent from the 5th year anniversary of Hindraf on 25.11.2013 rally which was attended by over 6 thousand people.

Hindraf sought the permission of its members before embarking on its plan to meet BN.Hindraf held its 3rd convention on 21st April this year which was attended by 700 delegates though out the country. Uthaya Kumar never attended this national.

The 700 delegates who attended the National Convention from all over Malaysia accepted the MOU and agreed to throw their support behind BN. He is not getting the support of the electorate in Kota Raja among the electorate in Kota Raja, since his support in Kota Raja among the electorate is non-existence; he had started to take pot-shots at Hindraf. By doing this he expects to gain some political mileage.

The delegates also accepted the leadership of Waytha Moorthy and others. Hindraf knows Uthayakumar in contesting in Kota Raja.

Hindraf in truly sorry for him he is a spent force in HRP’S struggle let him .He is a spent force in Hindraf struggle. Let him try his luck for the last time in this election.


W.Sambulingam

Deputy Chair
Hindraf

Is Malaysiakini campaigning for Pakatan Rakyat ?

By Saravanan

Malaysiakini is a Malaysian online news website and its editorial news claims to be built on independent news. Even though there has been reports of some high profile PR leaders like Sivarasa who are shareholders of Malaysikini, they still claim to be independent and fair in their reporting. On 28/04/2013 at Port Klang, on a PR campaign session, a senior member of Malaysiakini team Jiwi Kathaiah was surprisingly one of the speakers of the night campaigning for PR. For 45 minutes this Malaysiakini reporter was giving a one sided view of HINDRAF bashing. How is it so can Malaysiakini claim to be, so called 'Independent' but its team is very actively involved in PR campaigning ? Does it not compromise on their journalistic ethics ? Should SUHAKAM and the Election Commission be notified of this ? Could this senior Malaysiakini team member continue to be a team of Malaysiakini but on his supposedly free time go on PR ceramah's to campaign for PR and at the same time be entrusted to cover HINDRAF related news and report in an unbiased manner ? Do not journalists have some kind of code of ethics in their profession ? Malaysiakini must come out strongly and deny this if it indeed is not true as they are responsible to the their many paying subscribers to report independently and not slanted towards a political party. Stern action must be taken to Jiwi Kathaiah and reprimanded for his clear and open posturing towards PR.