It is not about painting the opposition with anything or painting it with a broad brush stroke.

Hindraf from the very start has made its intention to be bipartisan in its approach to what is really a socio-economic problem. It has not registered itself as a political party for good reason. That reason is apparently to prevent the government from treating it like another opposition party and its leaders as aspirants to political office. It has the advantage of being a social movement allied not to political parties but to a broad spectrum of NGO etc.

Yet as we all can see it fails to stop the government from branding what is in reality a loose coalition of interest groups as an organization with links to a foreign terrorist organization.

Certainly it is not about keeping the cake and eating it. It is about getting the support of the broad spectrum of right thinking Malaysians of whatever race, religion or political affiliations – be they BN supporters or DAP supporters, MIC or UMNO. The fact that its cause has lent itself to manipulation by opposition politicians should not reduce its importance as a movement bipartisan in approach, to attract the attention of the nation to a long standing issue affecting the Indian community in particular and to the Malaysian community generally.

HINDRAF
135-3 Jalan Toman 7
Kemayan Square 70200
Seremban N.Sembilan

PRESS STATEMENT 31st January 2008

RE: HINDRAF URGES SUPPORTERS NOT TO BE BLINDED WITH POLITICAL OPINIONS /OPPOSITION

HINDRAF CALLS FOR TALKS ON MALAYSIAN INDIANS’ FUTURE WITH POLITICAL PARTIES.

HINDRAF has always maintained it’s non-partisan stand and has always steered clear of party politics or align itself with any political party including the opposition

However HINDRAF cannot deny it has “Political Friends” both from within the ruling as well as opposition parties who have supported us in our cause for the protection of the ethnic minority Indian rights in Malaysia.

Hence taking into consideration of the upcoming general election, HINDRAF is now forced to advice the Malaysian Indians on “Whom to Vote”.

HINDRAF calls upon the Indian community not to blindly assume that by voting for the opposition political party in the next upcoming General Elections would solve the problems of oppression, suppression, marginalization and permanent colonization of the ethnic Indian community.

HINDRAF urges the political parties to:

a) Be transparent, fair and equitable in the distribution of seats to the Indian candidates both Parliamentary as well as State seats.

b) Make their manifesto extremely clear as to their commitment for advocating and implementing Indian rights should they be elected to lead the next Government. The 18 Point Demands made and submitted by HINDRAF to the Prime Minister are crystal clear on the needs and thirst of the Indian community to undo 50 years of Political and Socio Economic violations of the UMNO led Malaysian Government. These points should be the paramount consideration in respect to the Indian needs.

I call upon the interested political parties to immediately engage in talks on the above two crucial aspects as soon as possible so that we can advice the Malaysian Indian community “ Whom to Vote”.

Malaysian Indians have been cheated in the political arena for 50 years by the UMNO led BARISAN Government. HINDRAF’s leaders have made great sacrifices to relate this message to the Malaysian Indian community.

We will not betray the trust of Malaysian Indian community on HINDRAF’S leadership and will not advice the Malaysian Indians to place “a blind hope” on either BARISAN or the Opposition party unless we are satisfied the above two issues are adequately addressed.

HINDRAF is also happy to engage in dialogue with BARISAN subject to releasing the 5 HINDRAF leaders and accepting HINDRAF as a pressure group.

P.Waytha Moorthy

Chairman

HINDRAF

Currently in London

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They say all politics are local but by that it means that include national issues that trickle down to local level is what determine votes. On it really means that it depends on how Federal issues trickle down to local levels.

For the Indians, its all about temples, body-snatching, and economics – all of which state level have failed and its all Federal.

Lets forget about the Chinese for now.

For the Malays, there is no Federal issues that is that dramatic. Waste of money? Corruption? Judicial Integrity? Its nothing new and not dramatic enough. They are running on inflation and election fraud. Election fraud does not translate to local issue unless someone saudara is affected. Inflation? Sure 10% pay hike while 30% increase in food prices is not good, but car prices have gone down, electronic prices have gone down. So it will be largely dependent on local issues which in Terengganu and Kelantan is doing well by the various Corridors have a lot of hype going. Perlis has some local politics brewing but its a small state while Sabah bumi vote should still hold despite Musa pissing off many people.

Nothing is more dissapointing that what the opposition is doing regarding Malay votes. Keadilan and PAS is lost while DAP have not even considered what to do about it for decades. Dr. M is doing more than the entire opposition is doing. Isn’t that ironic?

Lull before the big storm?

There is no basis or need to divide people ( Malaysia’s own ) we should call them Malaysians and thats it bottom line.The world we live in today is so modern and yet the thinking of this govt. is so archaic.

The divide they use is so repulsive , they categorize people is as bumi/non bumi , islam/ non islam etc., In my terms there are only two words that i wud recognize i.e. bodoh / bukan bodoh and our govt. belongs to the BODOH category, and when they have people like samy velu you can even call it HODOH.

This is 2008 , not 1958 pls take note .People are getting smarter each day, but not our govt., that’s why our economy is nowhere near that our tiny southern neighbour., becos they are way forward in thier thinking and ideology.

gud luck to all you ppl who our govt is great , they are nothing but rotten eggs, that should be get RID OFF.

But most people missed what has been going on these past few days thats becoming critical. It involves one Mr Vincent of the Lingam tape fame, who counts the retired and forgetful Tun as his “close” friend and “mentor”.

He has just bought the more independent-minded “Sun” and has put his men in there. He’s gonna do the gomen a big favour by using this highly read newspaper to turn public opinion and perception around in the run-up to the coming elections.

He’s gonna turn his “guns” on the Opposition soon giving them no outlet to air their views or to report on their activities. And he’s gonna blast the likes of Anwar, the Lims et al kow-kow.

“The Sun” has set and has emerged (“Up is Down”) as another obedient servant of the BN masters. And Mr Vincent is slated to become a “good and close” friend of both f-i-l and s-i-l and other outlaws. The cunning devil. “Its good business”.

So all the Opposition’s outlets have been plugged. An uphill task lies ahead.

“Truth” might turn to “Bullshit” instead. Be prepared for a diarrhoea epidemic.