PRESS STATEMENT 11.3.08

RE: HINDRAF WELCOMES PM’S STATEMENT TO LEARN FROM PAST MISTAKES.
WISHES AND SENTIMENT OF THE INDIAN COMMUNITY VITAL “TO CHALK” THE FUTURE POLITICAL SCENARIO IN MALAYSIA.
PM SHOULD IMMEDIATELY TABLE AN ACT OF PARLIAMENT TO REPEAL THE EXISTING INTERNAL SECURITY ACT.
ALL ISA DETAINEES SHOULD BE RELEASED WITHOUT CONDITION.

HINDRAF welcomes the statement by Prime Minister taking collective responsibilities for the defeat and mistakes committed by the Government.

It is time the BN Government take cognisance of the wishes and sentiment if the Indian community “to chalk” the future political scenario in Malaysia. HINDRAF has played a vital role in shifting the sentiments of the Indian voters and have influenced the shift of “ political wave” of Chinese and Malay voters significantly.

There is no doubt that the Chinese and Malays do not believe the accusations levelled against HINDRAF that its demands are extreme and are linked to terrorists. The Chinese and Malays sympathise with the plight of Indians and are not perturbed into believing the propaganda perpetrated by the BN controlled media levelling HINDRAF as an extremist organization.

We wish to caution the Government that should HINDRAF continuously be ignored and suppressed by Government, it would have far reaching impact on the sentiments of all races in Malaysia for Malaysians have shown tremendous maturity in political thinking and discarded the race based politics.

Malaysians of races despised the Internal Security Act, which had served the personal agenda to ruling BN Government. If the Prime Minister is truly sincere in his statement that he had learnt and are willing to rectify the mistakes of his Government, he should release all existing ISA detainees with immediate effect without conditions and table the First Act of Parliament to repeal the Internal Security Act. This would serve as the beginning of the return of “Rakyat trust” on BN Government. The PM should also sincerely assure the Indian community that their plight would be the priority of future Government policies.

P Waytha Moorthy
Chairman
HINDRAF
Currently in New Delhi