Hindraf to file suit against gov’t in Tamil and Malay

Koh Jun Lin
4:08PM Feb 7, 2012

In an attempt to improve the quality of Tamil schools, Hindraf will file a lawsuit against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in both Tamil and Malay.
Describing it as a “very innovative summons”, lawyer and Hindraf co-founder P Uthayakumar (left) said the civil case will be filed at the KL High Court at 11am on Thursday.

Among other demands, he and lawyer M Manoharan are seeking a court order to make all 523 Tamil schools in Malaysia fully government-assisted schools, give 10 acres of land for each school, and establish a special Universiti Malaya campus to train 1,000 Tamil school teachers annually.

They also want RM55 billion in redress for 55 years of alleged discrimination of former Tamil students by the government and the private sector.
“We have asked, and asked, and asked for these things hundreds of times,” said Uthayakumar, who was distributing leaflets to gather support outside the Batu Caves temple today.

Hindraf was also running a signature drive in the midst of the Thaipusam celebrations around the temple to “oppose the discrimination against the Indian community”, which would be handed over to Najib at his Putrajaya office at 10am on Feb 19.

They also want Najib to fulfil their 18-point demand calling for equality made in 2007.
4,000 signatures collected

As at 12.50pm today, Hindraf member S Thiagarajan estimated that 4,000 signatures had been collected by its five teams around the temple, out of the targeted 100,000.
The campaign coincided with Najib’s visit to the temple, where he pleaded for “trust and belief” in the government. Despite this, the two groups did not come into contact even though Najib’s motorcade passed near the Hindraf members.

“We don’t cause a hoo-hah (disturbance) unless we need to,” Hindraf information chief S Jayathas explained.

However, while campaigning, there was a tense moment when a group of 16 police officers in plainclothes and police vests stood across the street looking at the Hindraf activists.

The standoff ended without incident when the police later broke up into smaller groups. After Najib had left the vicinity, the police officers went off, too.