The founder leader of Hindraf (Hindu Rights Action Force), spearheading an anti-discrimination agitation in Kuala Lumpur, P Waythamoorthy, has warned that Malaysia, with its 1.8 million ethnic Indian population (out of the total 26 million) would become another Sri Lanka. “We have not gone that bad (as the situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka) yet. But our biggest worry for the future is that we will turn out to be another Sri Lanka,” Waythamoorthy told The Indian Express.

The Hindraf leader, who is in Chennai after quietly slipping out of Kuala Lumpur to garner support in India for the cause of the ethnic Indian community, said: “We want Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to use his good office and persuade Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, to issue a statement on the plight of Indians in Malaysia.”

Waythamoorthy is here to meet Karunanidhi and other Tamil politicians. He accused the Malaysian Government of using violence against the peace agitators on November 25 who even held up posters of Mahatma Gandhi to emphasise their “peaceful intentions.” Said Waythamoorthy: “The Gandhi posters in shops in Klang and Kuala Lumpur sold out within hours on November 24 when processionists purchased them in bulk and distributed them.” The police blocked the entry points into the KLCC and unleashed violence, using water jets, tear gas and batons on the protestors who had already arrived at the venue around midnight.

“The Government has made the people really angry. I don’t know what will happen the next time,” warned the 41-year-old Hindraf leader, who arrived in Chennai on November 28, three days after the uprising. He accused the Muslim majority government in Malaysia of demolishing thousands of Hindu temples across the country, particularly in the states of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Negeri Sembilan, where the indentured labourers brought from south India by the British colonists had worked on the plantations here.

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