5:13PM Feb 18, 2014
Don’t decry, just eat humble pie, Waytha told
DAP national vice-chair M Kulasegaran has
advised Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia leader P Waythamoorthy to resist the
temptation to engage in “futile recrimination” following his resignation
from government and the Senate.
A week after resigning as a deputy minister in the Najib Abdul Razak administration and from the Senate to which he was appointed by the prime minister, Waythamoorthy has criticised Najib in caustic terms.
The MP for Ipoh Barat, a not infrequent target of accusations by the association of being a ‘mandore’ - a derisory epithet for ingratiating subalterns - said that Waythamoorthy should now prefer “humble self-scrutiny to futile recrimination”.
Earlier today, Waythamoorthy poured vitriol on Najib, calling him a “liar” who had “betrayed the trust” of the Indian people by not implementing the terms of a pre-polls agreement between Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia and a caretaker PM that was meant to secure Indian votes for the BN at GE13.
The agreement promised substantive measures to lift the Indian poor out of their decades-old familiarity with abject poverty.
Eights months after the agreement was inked, Waythamoorthy resigned on Feb 10 in frustration over the absence of any effort to fulfill the terms of the Hindraf-Najib pact.
“Were
not Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia aware that the PM and the BN severely
lacked credibility as agents for political and economic change?” quizzed
Kula (right) when reached for reaction to Waythamoorthy’s denunciation of Najib.
“Up to the point when the association signed the agreement with Najib, the word among people sceptical of the PM was that he talked a good game of change, moderation and transformation but that when push comes to shove, he refuses to walk the talk,” argued the federal legislator.
“This was not just a perception among government critics, it was also the feeling of people inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the government.
“Yet, against all odds, the association decided to go ahead and sign the memorandum of understanding (MOU) which they said was proof that the BN was worthy of the support of Indian voters,” said Kula in elaboration of his points.
The DAP lawyer said it would be more relevant for the association to explain what was it that had prompted them to put aside popular scepticism about Najib’s powers of delivery in favour of radical optimism that a post-election PM would be a changed man, ready to deliver on promises improbable and unrealisable.
Inexperienced dabblers?
“The question now is whether Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia were a bunch of inexperienced dabblers in the political game or realistic exponents of the cause of the Indian poor?” said Kula.
“I’m afraid the verdict of history on the association is that they mistook one swallow as having made their summer as exponents of the Indian cause,” said Kula, referring to the movement’s organisation of a dramatic street march by the Indian poor in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 25, 2007, an event that was to shift the Indian vote from its traditional allegiance to the BN to the opposition.
“Now they know that one march does not make a movement and one MOU does not usher in changed economic and political circumstances,” mused Kula.
A week after resigning as a deputy minister in the Najib Abdul Razak administration and from the Senate to which he was appointed by the prime minister, Waythamoorthy has criticised Najib in caustic terms.
The MP for Ipoh Barat, a not infrequent target of accusations by the association of being a ‘mandore’ - a derisory epithet for ingratiating subalterns - said that Waythamoorthy should now prefer “humble self-scrutiny to futile recrimination”.
Earlier today, Waythamoorthy poured vitriol on Najib, calling him a “liar” who had “betrayed the trust” of the Indian people by not implementing the terms of a pre-polls agreement between Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia and a caretaker PM that was meant to secure Indian votes for the BN at GE13.
The agreement promised substantive measures to lift the Indian poor out of their decades-old familiarity with abject poverty.
Eights months after the agreement was inked, Waythamoorthy resigned on Feb 10 in frustration over the absence of any effort to fulfill the terms of the Hindraf-Najib pact.
“Were
not Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia aware that the PM and the BN severely
lacked credibility as agents for political and economic change?” quizzed
Kula (right) when reached for reaction to Waythamoorthy’s denunciation of Najib.“Up to the point when the association signed the agreement with Najib, the word among people sceptical of the PM was that he talked a good game of change, moderation and transformation but that when push comes to shove, he refuses to walk the talk,” argued the federal legislator.
“This was not just a perception among government critics, it was also the feeling of people inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the government.
“Yet, against all odds, the association decided to go ahead and sign the memorandum of understanding (MOU) which they said was proof that the BN was worthy of the support of Indian voters,” said Kula in elaboration of his points.
The DAP lawyer said it would be more relevant for the association to explain what was it that had prompted them to put aside popular scepticism about Najib’s powers of delivery in favour of radical optimism that a post-election PM would be a changed man, ready to deliver on promises improbable and unrealisable.
Inexperienced dabblers?
“The question now is whether Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia were a bunch of inexperienced dabblers in the political game or realistic exponents of the cause of the Indian poor?” said Kula.
“I’m afraid the verdict of history on the association is that they mistook one swallow as having made their summer as exponents of the Indian cause,” said Kula, referring to the movement’s organisation of a dramatic street march by the Indian poor in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 25, 2007, an event that was to shift the Indian vote from its traditional allegiance to the BN to the opposition.
“Now they know that one march does not make a movement and one MOU does not usher in changed economic and political circumstances,” mused Kula.
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