Hindraf pressures Najib to honour promise

After more than 100 days in office, PM is still silent on the implementation of the blueprint agreed upon.

JURU: A  local Hindraf leader today called on Umno ministers, who told P Waythamoorthy to quit as deputy minister, to instead question the Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on what had happened on the movement’s blueprint.

Penang Hindraf chairman K Kalayselvam said Ministers Ahmad Zahidi Hamid, Hishammuddin Hussein and Khairy Jamaluddin should advise their boss to initiate pro-active steps to implement the blueprint.

Kalayselvam said the Umno ministers should realise that Hindraf signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to implement the five-year blueprint for betterment of marginalised segment of the Indian community.

He reminded the Umno ministers that Hindraf campaigned for Barisan Nasional in the last election to secure the long deprived rights of Indians in the country.

But, after 100 days in office since the last general election, he said Najib administration was yet to take any proactive step to implement the blueprint.

“We did not sign the MOU for any other reason except to improve the living standards of the marginalised Indians in the country,” emphasised Kalayselvam after a Hindraf seminar for Indian youth development here today. Some 120 people attended the seminar.

The Umno ministers called Waythamoorthy to quit Putrajaya administration after the Hindraf supremo questioned the police for slaying five ethnic Indian youths in name of criminality.

During the much-publicised MOU signing, Kalayselvam recalled that Najib had promised to implement the blueprint.

He said the blueprint among others, had spelt out various plans to assist Indian youths to earn a decent livelihood and prevent them from getting involved in crime.

He insisted that police action to shoot and kill crime suspects all these years had failed to curb rising crime rate anyway.

“The blueprint was also designed to reduce crime among Indians in a more holistic and comprehensive way.

“The government should take proactive steps immediately to implement the blueprint if it is serious to prevent Indians from becoming criminals,” he told newsmen.