“Hindrafs’ London Public Records Office Research from 3/6/2007 onwards”. P. Uthayakumar’s 25 Nov Hindraf Rally book in daily segments No. 49 (14/2/11)

Chapter 7

Hindrafs’ London Public Records Office Research from 3/6/2007 onwards

On 30th June 2007 a few members of the Klang business community and friends of Waytha Moorthy organised a fund raising dinner to generate funds for research to be done at the Public Records Office (now National Achieves) at Kew, London, United Kingdom.

Waytha Moorthy wanted to know the essence and basis on which the Federal Constitution was based on and later passed in the Malaysian Parliament which in turn formed the basis of UMNO’s rule in Malaysia that has successfully kept the Indians out of the national mainstream development of Malaysia.

Also what were the thoughts and intention of our forefathers that led to the formulation of the Federal Constitution and later the granting of independence to all the Malays, Chinese, Indian and the Orang Asli in the then Malaya in 1957 which later became Malaysia in 1963?

In particular what is this Article 153 of the Federal Constitution vis a vis the ‘social contract’ which UMNO claims and keeps harping on and repeating and takes it to be a Carta Blanca(blank cheque) for their 50 years of racism, religious extremism and supremacy by especially excluding the Malaysian Indians from the national mainstream development of Malaysia and the permanent colonialisation of the Malaysian Indians over the last 50 years by
the neo colonialist UMNO.

When there is a dispute and/or ambiguity concerning a particular law the conventional practice is to go back to the Parliamentary Hansard to establish the real intention of Parliament. Similarly when there is an ambiguity and/ or dispute concerning the Federal Constitution we naturally go back to the travaux preparatories that is the official records of the negotiations which helps clarify the intentions of a treaty.

Thus my mission to London with regards to the Malaysian Federal Constitution vis a vis equality and equal opportunities including for the Malaysian Indian poor. We were running short of time as we had intended to file in the Hindraf Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim in London by the eve of the 50th Anniversary Golden Merdeka Day Celebrations on 31st August 2007.

Lawyers Manoharan Malayalam, R. Kengadharan (who were later arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and P. Waytha Moorthy were supposed to do this research in London but had backed out as they were caught up with their day to day legal and Court work and that was when i had to volunteer as a last resort. As I did not have the cash to advance for the trip, Waytha Moorthy advanced his one month’s salary, his spare U. S. Dollars and Sterling Pounds notes he had with him.

The Klang business community later reimbursed Waytha Moorthy for all the cash that he had advanced. I left Malaysia for London on the 3rd of June 2007 and returned on the 17th of June 2007. This Public Records Office, Kew is extremely strict and highly security conscious in their operations as they store and maintain priceless documents running into hundreds of years from all over the world and in particular from the former Commonwealth colonies of Great Britain.