KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24: Hindraf chief P.Waytha Moorthy said that the Hindu rights group will be launching a campaign aimed to educate the Indian diaspora of Malaysia that change is needed and that voting for Barisan Nasional (BN) brings no development to the Indian community.

Waytha said the campaign, called “not a single vote for barisan”, will be officially launched by Hindraf on Feb 14 2017.

Apart from the launch of this campaign, Hindraf has a mega scale plan to awaken the Indian community in Malaysia.

“Hindraf hereby declares that we would be organizing a mammoth rally on our 10th anniversary which falls on 25th November 2017 (Saturday) exactly a year from now in Kuala Lumpur.

“Hindraf calls on all well-wishers to join us in highlighting to the entire country that Umno-BN does not deserve a single vote of any Malaysian in the next GE.

“We would also be collaborating with other minority groups including our brothers from Sabah and Sarawak to join us in this great endeavor to democratically oust BN from power in the next general elections,” Waytha said in a statement today.

On Nov 25, 2007, almost 100,000 Indians came to the streets to demand basic human rights that they have been denied for 50 years.

These rights include the right to equal placement in public universities, skills training colleges, job opportunities, economic opportunities, relocation of places of worships and Hindu graveyards upon development of estates.

Hindraf had stressed on the displacement issue by the government which has left 300,000  Malaysian Indians stateless and  800,000 estate workers displaced after they were asked to move out from the estates.

“The government has since then thrown crumbs and peanuts to their political partner MIC and their friendly NGOs totalling almost 150 million annually which we believe is siphoned to enrich themselves their leaders and their cronies.”

In 2013, the government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak upon signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with HINDRAF publicly apologized to the Indian community for 40 years of neglect and the massive displacement that took place amongst the estate workers.

According to Waytha, the government promised that it would carry out socio economic activities tailor made for the Indian community and assured that the funding and programs would be entrusted to Hindraf leadership.

“This promise was made specifically as the PM claimed he is aware development programs meant to the Indian community did not reach the targeted group.

“Though Hindraf supported BN in GE 13 based  on this promise and the written MOU, the PM has proven once again that Umno could not be trusted and would be even willing to break a written agreement in order to keep their crony political partner, MIC in power,” said Waytha.

Waytha claimed that it is a fact that MIC and all Indian based parties in BN has lost the moral authority to represent the Indians.

-The Malaysian Times, November 24, 2016.