Pakatan disputes Hindraf figures (NST)

News Straits Times, Saturday, 10th January 2008

PAKATAN Rakyat has distanced itself from Hindraf chairman P. Waytha Moorthy's call to the Indian government to impose trade sanctions against Malaysia over the alleged ill-treatment of Malaysian Indians.

Penang Deputy Chief Minister Dr P. Ramasamy said the five states under the opposition coalition had their own way of handling the welfare of Malaysian Indians.

"We don't need a foreign country interfering in our domestic affairs," he said on the sidelines of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD).

Ramasamy said while Waytha Moorthy had his own way of handling the matter, "we value the cordial ties we have with India and have no intentions of severing it".

He said Pakatan Rakyat would study the pamphlet released to the 1,600 delegates attending the meeting by Waytha Moorthy and would state its stand on the statistics contained in the publication in the future.

It is understood that PR leaders here are unhappy with the exaggerated statistics quoted in the document by the Hindraf leader, who is in self-imposed exile, which they felt would undermine the efforts to help Indians in Malaysia.

Much of the statistics are said to be questionable as they were compiled before the March 8 general election last year.

On the statement by MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu on Thursday that Malaysian Indians had not been marginalised by the government, Ramasamy said the results of the March 8 general election last year had proven otherwise.

He said Samy Vellu had used the PBD as a forum to enhance the flagging image of the MIC which had only three members of parliament as opposed to the 11 Malaysian Indian Pakatan MPs.

Ramasamy said he would be writing to Indian Overseas Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi to protest the fact that Samy Vellu had been given prominence at the conference.

He hoped the Pakatan delegation would be seen as the main delegation from Malaysia at next year's conference despite the fact that the MIC delegation was always the largest from around the world.

"We reserve the right to represent Malaysian Indians here. The MIC is a small party with limited representation in Parliament and the various state assemblies."