Waytha to brother: War with BN is over, so work with Harapan

Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia leader P Waytha Moorthy (above) has urged his elder brother P Uthayakumar, who leads a group called Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf 2.0), not to take a confrontational approach towards the Pakatan Harapan administration. 

"I wish to say clearly to Uthayakumar. The war is over with the defeat of BN. Uthayakumar must drop his confrontational path and join all those who are now working hard to build a new Malaysia.

"It is time to rebuild the community in the new Malaysia that was the result of hard work of all those who supported Harapan," he said in a statement today.

Waytha Moorthy claimed his group has secured a commitment from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to resolve issues faced by the Indian community and therefore it did not make sense to take a confrontational approach. 

Yesterday, after a long hiatus, Uthayakumar and his supporters, working under the name Hindraf 2.0, had submitted a list of demands to Putrajaya's Institutional Reform Committee to address issues faced by underprivileged Indians. 

In response to this, Waytha Moorthy challenged Uthayakumar's rights to the name "Hindraf 2.0". 

"There is no such organisation as Hindraf 2.0. It's so called leader Uthayakumar is the leader of Human Rights Party. 

"He was never part of any Hindraf activities since 2008 as he wanted to develop his own political party. His actions have caused confusion, anger and hatred amongst (the) public," said Waytha Moorthy.

He urged Uthayakumar to join his group, which he said had worked successfully on the "zero vote for BN" campaign over the past two years, in close collaboration with Pakatan Harapan.

Waytha Moorthy further claimed his group had held 300 roadshows and meetings to campaign against BN, but Uthayakumar did not do any work to support Harapan. 

Uthayakumar was one of five Hindraf leaders arrested without trial by the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi administration in December 2007. 

They were detained following a mass demonstration - led by Uthayakumar - in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 25 that year over claims that the federal government had marginalised the Indian community.

At the time, Waytha Moorthy was in London. He returned to Malaysia in 2012 and formed a pact with then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, while urging Indians to help BN win a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

Waytha Moorthy was sworn in as Najib's deputy minister in June 2013. He resigned eight months later.

In August last year, Waytha Moorthy met Mahathir to discuss possible collaboration between his group and Harapan. - Mkini