Waytha: Hindraf will work with Pakatan

PETALING JAYA: Hindraf has announced that it will work with Pakatan Harapan (PH) to bring down the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in the general election.

Speaking to FMT, Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy said the Indian rights group would help PH by urging the Indian community in rural and semi-urban areas to vote for the coalition and to reject the BN.

“Hindraf will play a crucial role for PH by going to the ground and delivering the rural and semi-urban Indian votes,” he said. “Hindraf will work with PH to end kleptocracy and corruption, which has paralysed the entire Malaysian community irrespective of race and religion.”

In August, PPBM chairman Mahathir Mohamad and Hindraf discussed the prospect of the Indian rights group joining the opposition coalition.

A month later, Mahathir said he had yet to receive any formal application from the Indian-based NGO.

Waythamoorthy questioned Prime Minister Najib Razak’s sincerity in his advocacy of 1Malaysia and moderation in religion, accusing him of protecting “certain individuals” and encouraging extremism.

“He’s encouraging extremism to get the Malays to support him and setting a very dangerous precedent,” he said.

He also criticised Najib’s Malaysian Indian Blueprint (MIB), introduced through the Socioeconomic Development of the Indian Community Unit (Sedic), claiming that the prime minister was attempting to hoodwink the Indian community.

He said millions of funds meant to reach the Indian community through the economic planning unit and Sedic were siphoned away by MIC and its crony NGOs.

The MIB, which was launched in the middle of this year, seeks to improve income and wealth levels in the bottom 40% of the Indian community, improve its educational attainment and increase its sense of inclusion in the country’s social fabric.

However, many have dismissed the MIB as an election ploy. FMT