Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) has opened fire on P Waythamoorthy for accusing the group of attempting to derail Pakatan Harapan's pledge to solve the statelessness issue.
Taking to Twitter this evening, lawyer Latheefa Koya reminded him that it was LFL which was at the forefront of this issue.
"Where were you? Stop misinterpreting LFL's statement to look like a hero now!
"You ran away to BN and came back. Now you accuse us of remaining quiet?" added the PKR central leadership council member.
Waythamoorthy was responding to LFL executive director Eric Paulsen, who said that although it was the early days, the new government did not seem to acknowledge the serious problem of statelessness affecting Malaysians of all races.
He said the government chose to focus only on such problems affecting the Indian community as stated in Item 1 of the Special Commitment for the Indian Community in Harapan's election manifesto.
This promise was supposed to be fulfilled within 100 days.
'Derailing' gov't efforts
Paulsen noted that such problems affected more than one ethnic group and happened nationwide.
Therefore, he said it is important that the government looks into all stateless persons, and not only those of Indian descent.
Waythamoorthy pointed out that some 300,000 stateless Indians, including children, have been denied education and healthcare due to their citizenship status.
"LFL should appreciate Harapan leaders' commitment but instead at this juncture, it seems to be derailing the attempt by the new government.
"It should instead ask the government to also include other races affected by the issue rather than pointing negatively at the manifesto and blaming the leadership of concentrating on Indians alone.
"Hindraf is surprised why LFL remained quiet all along and at this juncture seem to be making an issue with Harapan?" he was quoted as saying by FMT.
Don't lump all races together
Waythamoorthy said the number and cause of statelessness among the Indians are unique and therefore, the policies targeted them specifically.
"One cannot lump all the races together as each community may have a different cause for their state," he added.
Waythamoorthy left the country prior to the Hindraf in 2007, before returning in 2012 to form a pact with the Najib Abdul Razak administration. He later campaigned for BN and was then appointed a deputy minister.
He resigned in 2014 on the grounds that he was unable to fulfill his pledges to the Indian community. -Mkini
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