‘Najib’s Makkal Sakti to hijack rally’

Hindraf claims that RS Thanenthiran's party has been given the green light to hold a rally at the same venue on Sunday.

GEORGE TOWN: Hindraf Makkal Sakti has accused the police of conspiring with Umno to hijack its anti-racism rally on Sunday.

The movement claimed that the police had issued a permit to RS Thanenthiran’s Malaysia Makkal Sakti Party (MMSP) to hold a separate rally at the same venue, the Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

In a posting on its website, Hindraf labelled MMSP as Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s “Makkal Sakti” and published a photograph of Thanenthiran tying a sash bearing the words “Wira Makkal Sakti” around Najib.

On Feb 9, Hindraf said that it had submitted an application for a police permit to the Dang Wangi district police headquarters.

“When a policeman arrived at our headquarters to serve the letter of rejection on the application, we saw Najib’s MMSP letterhead in his file. But we did not enquire about it,” it stated.

However, Hindraf claimed that it received information from reliable sources two hours later that MMSP was granted the permit instead.

“Obviously the police, its intelligence unit, Najib and Umno have conspired to pit one Indian organisation against another.

“They are plotting to arrest the real Hindraf leaders, and hand over the initiative to MMSP to hijack Hindraf’s rally and confuse the public,” the movement alleged.

Reminiscent of 2007

Contacted later, Hindraf chairman P Waytha Moorthy claimed that it was reminiscent of Hindraf’s mammoth rally in 2007.

He alleged that the police planted a “special branch E3M officer with the rank of ASP” in the movement’s leadership before the Nov 25 rally that year.

Waytha Moorthy claimed that the move was part of an operation known as “Ops Padam Hindraf” to divide the movement.

In the follow-up action, he claimed that some Hindraf newcomers were “turned over” by the authorities to form and lead MMSP.

“Backed by unlimited government funds, they used the print and electronic media, including mainstream Tamil dailies, to execute their political ploy,” he said.

“Back then, we were not prepared with our second line of leadership. But today we are,” he added.

Meanwhile, some local professionals had formed an ad-hoc 10-member group called “Friends of Hindraf” to deal with several issues, such as possible arrests on Sunday.

The legal team is headed by Hindraf lawyer and DAP’s Kota Alam Shah assemblyman M Manoharan. - FMT