'Crack down on December rally for stateless Indians'

PKR vice-president N Surendran has claimed that his questioning by police today is a crackdown before next week’s sit-in rally at the National Registration Department (NRD) headquarters in Putrajaya to urge the authorities to solve the issue of stateless Malaysians.

Surendran (right) said that he was called up for the speech he made in Brickfields on Nov 24, regarding stateless Indians and their rights to have MyKad and birth certificates.

“We believe the authorities are trying to put pressure, harass and intimidate us in order to halt the mass rally.

“That mass rally is an attempt to get justice for the hundreds of thousands stateless Malaysians in this country; not just Indians in West Malaysia but also East Malaysians who are affected by this,” he said.

He was accompanied by his lawyer and former bar council president S Ambiga and PKR legal affairs director Latheefa Koya at the Travers police station today.

Ambiga exclaimed that the size of this issue should not be underestimated and it should be the government’s top priority.

“As far as I’m concerned, there should be no stateless Malaysians,” she told the press.

Latheefa, meanwhile, added that Kapar MP S Manikavasagam too was questioned by the police two days ago and she thinks that the crackdown will go on.

“This crackdown may continue but it’s not going to stop the rally,” she said, maintaining that this is not just a protest for protest sake.

“We are asking the NRD to go down and seek this people and give them their rights. It’s their rights as citizens as operation of law,” she said.

PKR earlier announced that they would hold the mass rally on Dec 5 at 10am but due to overwhelming support, they have decided to have it on Dec 12 instead.