Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy

Hindu temple demolition in Malaysia

Waytha Moorthy was a devotee of the Sri Siva Balamuniswarar Hindu temple in Setapak which was demolished using government bulldozers in 2006, the Sri Kumaravel Hindu temple Kampong Medan which has been relocated next to a sewerage tank in 2006, the Muniswarar Hindu temple in Midlands estate was demolished using a sledgehammer in 2006 and the Muniswarar temple in Seremban with a 100-year-old rain tree which has been given the notice to be demolished in 2006.^[4]

Lawsuit against Britain

He sued the British Government. He accused the British government, which was then managing British Malaya of "abandoning minority Indians to the mercy of majoritarian Malay rule while granting independence on 31 August 1957". Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy sued the British Government to pay £1,000,000 to each Malaysian Indian for the "pain, suffering, humiliation, discrimination and continuous colonisation". This extraordinary lawsuit had the backing and support from HINDRAF or Hindu rights action force.

Just as Malaysia was celebrating her 50th Independence on 31 August 2007, Waytha Moorthy led a team of lawyers to file a 4 trillion pound lawsuit against the British Government. "After a century of slaving for the British, the colonial government withdrew after granting independence and they left us unprotected and at the mercy of a majority Malay-Muslim government that has violated our rights as minority Indians," said Waytha after filing the suit.^[5] He is also seeking to strike out Article 153 of the Malaysian Constitution which acknowledges Malay Supremacy. He also wants the court to declare that Malaysia is a secular state and not an Islamic one.

Arrest

On 30 October 2007, Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy and other members of HINDRAF—M. Manoharan, P. Uthayakumar and V. Ganabatirau—were arrested at 11:00 p.m. and detained until 8:00 a.m. the following morning for taking part in a demonstration against the demolition of a Hindu Shrine in Kuala Lumpur. Because of this "unlawful arrest", the lawyers are seeking 85 million Malaysian Ringgits in compensation, with Manoharan, Uthayakumar and Ganapathy Rao seeking 20 million while Waytha Moorthy is seeking 25 million.^[6]

He was arrested again on 23 November together with P. Uthayakumar and V. Ganabatirau, this time on sedition charges. All three were granted bail, but Waytha refused bail as a sign of protest.^[7] But on 26 November, the court discharged Waytha Moorthy, Uthayakumar and Ganapathy Rao^[8] because "the prosecution had failed to adhere to Zunaidah's (the judge) instructions on Friday to attach the Tamil transcripts of the speeches to the charge sheet".^[9]

The movement grew in numbers and on 25 November 2007, approximately 100,000 ethnic Indians joined HINDRAF in a peaceful public rally based on Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent protest to highlight the plight of the marginalised Indian community in Malaysia. The government used tear gas and chemical-laced water at the protestors. Despite their peaceful manner, many participants were arrested by the authorities.

International Mission

Waytha Moorthy left Malaysia on 26 November 2007 to obtain international support for HINDRAF's cause.^[10] He began with India and planned to proceed to London, Geneva, Brussels, Washington DC, New York and Atlanta.BERNAMA, the Malaysian national news agency on 3 January 2008 reported that Waytha Moorthy said that the HINDRAF cause has been lost. This statement was untrue as it was twisted by the Barisan Nasional controlled media.^[11]

Waytha Moorthy in his international awareness campaign to highlight the predicament of the marginalised Indian community, worked tirelessly with the UNHCR, the UK government, the US State Department, the US International Commission on Religious Freedom, Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch, Beckett Foundation, the International Bar Association, the Law Society, the UK Bar Council, the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), the Human Rights Defenders (Dublin), the FIDH and the International Red Cross as well as many foreign governments.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Waytha Moorthy's above campaign caused great embarrassment to the Malaysian government and therefore to frustrate his attempts, the Malaysian government revoked his International Passport in May 2008.^[16] Waytha was forced to seek protection from the UK government, which duly granted him asylum status under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

On August 1, 2012, despite Waytha Moorthy’s real fear that he would face arrest and detention on return to Malaysia, he made a voluntary decision to return to Malaysia.,^[17][18] Immediately on return to Malaysia, he invited the government to engage in talks on issues relating to human rights issues. On March 10, 2013, Waytha Moorthy began a hunger strike to raise human rights issues.,^[19][20][21] 21 days into his strike, the Prime Minister of Malaysia invited him for discussions, which led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) between Hindraf and the government in uplifting the socio-economic standing of the marginalised Indian community in Malaysia.

Support BN

On 18 April 2013, HINDRAF and the then ruling government BN signed the Memorandum of Understanding(MOU). At the MOU signing ceremony, Waythamoorthy had also urged Indian voters to vote for BN in GE-13, saying only the ruling coalition can take care of the community's welfare.^[22]

Joining the BN government

Wathya was appointed as the deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department after Barisan Nasional formed the government following the simple majority seat victory in the general election. Waythamoorthy said that he and Hindraf would be able to solve the issue of stateless Indians in the country within five years.^[23][24]

He was the first NGO leader in the nation to be appointed into the government's administration as a Deputy Minister.^[25]

However, on 8 February 2014, after being in the government for eight (8) months,Waytha announced his resignation from all government positions and the Dewan Negara, for the failure and breach of trust of the government to start reform policies and programs to uplift the Malaysian Indian community.,^[26][27]

Return to PH government and appointed as a Minister

In August 2017, HINDRAF under the leadership of Waytha Moorthy met with Chairman of Malaysian United Indigenous Party (PPBM), Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and initiated a working relationship with Pakatan Harapan (PH) for the General Election 14 in 2018. Tun Dr. Mahathir recognizing the importance of HINDRAF in its ability to reach out to grassroots Indians in the semi-rural and rural areas officially accepted HINDRAF as an associate / strategic partner of Pakatan Harapan (PH).^[28][29][30]

HINDRAF under the leadership of Waytha Moorthy managed to swing over 88% of the Malaysian Indian votes to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) that lead to the historical defeat of Barisan Nasional (BN) in the General Election 14 (2018). The Indian vote for the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in General Election 13 (2013) was 50.56%.

In recognition of the contribution of HINDRAF, Waytha Moorthy was sworn in as a Senator on 17 July 2018 and appointed as the Minister of Unity and Social Well Being under the current Pakatan Harapan government administration.^[31][32][33]

Waytha Moorthy’s government appointment is unique because he is the first NGO leader of the nation to have achieved a Minister status in the government.

Formation of Malaysian Advancement Party(MAP)

A new political party has been submitted for registration by its pro-team committee lead by YB Minister Waytha Moorthy with ROS. This party will be called Malaysian Advancement Party (MAP).

The Party’s main objectives amongst others will be to protect, promote and advance the interest of The Malaysian Indian community’s political, economic, educational, cultural, religious and social interests.

With the birth of this new political party, there is now a new hope and opportunity for the Malaysian Indian community in Malaysia to ensure that effective representation can be provided so that no one is left behind and all would now have an opportunity to enjoy the growth and development in the nation in a holistic manner.

The party’s direction and vision are to adopt a fundamental rights-based approach for advancement, progressively moving away from state-assisted, welfare and hand-out based community towards community empowerment and resilient.

The values that the party will propagate will include inclusiveness, equality, quality, originality, integrity, and transparency with an effort to restore the intent of our forefathers in this multicultural nation. The party will work and participate with all political parties in Pakatan Harapan to enhance the reform agenda under this Malaysia Baru.^[34][35][36]