Thursday, October 14, 2010

HRP wants to cut a deal with Pakatan

(Malaysiakini) The Human Rights Party Malaysia (HRP) wants to engage Pakatan Rakyat in talks with a view to cooperating in the sharing of election seats in the forthcoming 13th general election.

NONEHRP national information chief S Jayathas (left) said their common political enemy is BN.

"In the last election Hindraf was the deciding political factor in making Pakatan shine in five states and denying BN a two-thirds majority."

"HRP, which is Hindraf's political wing, has been in existence for almost one-and-a-half years now.
"But PKR, DAP and PAS have refused to even engage in a dialogue with us.
"This shows the extent of their gratitude for the sacrifices we made to make Pakatan the second political force in the country," lamented the HRP leader in a media statement.

Jayathas pointed out that in the March 2008 general election, BN, despite the Indians not having a majority in any of the 222 Parliament and 576 State Assembly seats, had granted MIC nine Parliament and 20 state seats to contest.

In return BN expected the Indian voters to support the other BN candidates.
Non-starters
"But in PKR, DAP and PAS/PR, we are non-starters because they are not prepared to share any seat with HRP. All they want is the 715,099 Indian votes free of charge," said the angry HRP leader.

'Why cannot the Pakatan coalition show the same magnanimity as Umno?" asked Jayathas.
He added that if Indians in BN get a raw deal, in Pakatan they get no deal at all.

He shot down the claim by PKR, DAP and PAS top leaders that their parties are multi-racial.

He claimed "At best, PKR, DAP and the PAS top leadership are like Umno, who has created a buffer of Indian mandores who are powerless but are assigned to "deal" with Indian problems in what they call "multi-racial" parties.

"Why aren't the top leadership of PKR, DAP and PAS in furtherance of their multi-racial claims, attend to the pressing Indian problems like giving land for Tamil schools, Hindu temples, cemeteries, Indian villages and settlements?"

HRP has to make the change

He asked where is the change Pakatan had promised in the March 8th 2008 general elections.

"As there is none, HRP has to make the change by being the third force and the alternative for Indians.

According to Jayathas, there is now a 14 percent Indian support swing for the party based on the recent survey by the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) of 1,367 respondents aged 21 and above.

It was taken from Aug 1-18, on the popularity of BN among Malaysians.

The Oct 8 Bernama survey report, claims that support for BN has now increased to 55 percent from 51 percent taken during the 2008 polls while Pakatan has registered a drop of 12 percent from the previous 49 percent.

The report claimed that Malay support for BN has increased by 3 percent to 61 percent in August from 58 percent that was registered the same month last year.

Likewise Chinese support has increased by 2 percent to 40 percent during the same period.

However, support from the Indian community has dropped from 63 percent to 59 percent by 4 percent (14 percent of the Indians chose not to support any political party).

Jayathas's argument is that out of the 14 per cent undecided Indians, BN has lost 4 percent while the remaining 10 percent is Pakatan's loss.

NONEThe party information chief said the dedication and commitment of pro-tem secretary general P Uthayakumar (right) after his release from Kamunting Detention Camp on May 9, 2009, helped gain the increasing support of the Indian community.

The former ISA detainee who was detained for 514 days, had crisscrossed the country to gauge the support of the marginalised Indians with his various community oriented projects and road-shows.

During his ISA detention, he had mapped out an ambitious political long term project of capturing 15 parliamentary seats and 38 Indian majority state seats, named project 15/38.
Political vacuum
HRP hopes to fill the political vacuum of the marginalised Indian community left by both BN and Pakatan by highlighting their socio-economic plight.

Jayathas said "Our 15/38 is the last self-help measure and the last resort as both BN and PR have failed the 2.5 million Malaysian Indian community.

"It is plain and obvious that both these parties of the political spectrum only want the Indian votes and never want to address their pressing community problems."

He said the IIUM survey report of the 14 percent support for HRP will further boost the party's 15/38 project and end the Indian mandore system now being practiced by both political divides.

In the first phase of the party's project 15/38, the party is concentrating on seven Parliamentary and seven state seats namely Padang Serai/ Lunas in Kedah, Batu Kawan/ Perai in Penang, Ipoh Barat/ Buntong in Perak, Kota Raja/ Sri Andalas in Selangor, Teluk Kemang/ Port Dickson in N. Sembilan/ Cameron Highlands/ Tanah Rata in Pahang and Tebrau/ Puteri Wangsa in Johor.

"The evidence of our first major breakthrough is with the creation of the very first Indian majority state seat Buntong in Perak which rose from 46.2 percent as at the 8th March 2008 General Elections to 54 percent last month," claimed Jayathas.