PETALING JAYA: Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) chairman and co-founder P. Waythamoorthy, currently living in self-imposed exile in London, said he would return to Malaysia despite the risk of detention.
“I have decided to return to Malaysia now since the Hindraf lawyers have been released,” he said in a statement from London.
Five Hindraf leaders, among them his brother P. Uthayakumar, were arrested in November, 2007 after a mass gathering that the Government had deemed illegal. The Hindraf movement has also since been declared illegal.
The other two Hindraf leaders detained were V. Ganabatirau and R. Kengadharan.
All five leaders have since been released -- the first two soon after Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak became prime minister in April, and the remaining three over the weekend just past.
Waythamoorthy said that when the authorities hauled up Hindraf leaders in 2007, the movement -- founded to address the plight of Malaysian Indians -- was still in its infancy.
“At that juncture, I decided that Hindraf concerns needed to be brought to light in the international arena.
“As such I left for Britain to continue its struggle and keep the movement alive,” he said.
“Now that my comrades have been released, I have decided that I shall return to Malaysia to continue and forge ahead with the objectives and goals of Hindraf in seeking what it had originally set out to, even at the risk of being arrested under the ISA,” he said in his statement.
Star Online
11/05/09
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