I refer to the Malaysiakini report Hindraf vs Hindraf: One faction sues, the other makes police report .

The actions of brothers Uthayakumar Ponnusamy and Waythamoorthy Ponnusamy highlight the height of their hypocrisy.

First of all, despite Uthaya’s claims of inheriting the majority of support from the parent Hindraf body and extensive advertisement/notices of this being broadcasted via their website , SMSes banners, etc to turn up in full force for the filing of the RM100 million ringgit suit, only six individuals accompanied the interim chairman of Human Rights Party (HRP).

Don’t you think this is quite a disparity from the 50,000 thousand odd people that turned out on Nov 25, 2007 when they were setting about to file another suit – the trillion pound class action suit against the British government? This goes to show how much the ground sentiment has turned against the Ponnusamy brothers in the last two years due to their lack of accounting of public funds, lack of tolerance to criticism, poor leadership and race-based politics.

This pattern is in keeping with the recent Nov 25 Hindraf protest anniversary where the two rival Hindraf splinter groups had separate activities – Uthaya’s group attracting about 15 people for their fast in front of KLCC as contrasted to the 5,000 Indians squeezing into a packed hall in Klang (even spilling outside of the hall).

This to hear the other Hindraf leaders – V Ganabatirau and K Vasanthakumar speak, loudly cheering everytime the Ponnusamy brothers were insulted during their speech.

Waythamoorthy also dialled up a notch in his hypocrisy when he decided to engage the services of the interim chairman of the Human Rights Party (HRP) – P Uthayakumar to sue independent press like Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider. We have heard a countless number of times when these two brothers preached about press freedom and, in fact, this is one of the promises enlisted in the manifesto for the yet to be registered HRP.

Yet, rather shamelessly they have decided to sue Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider, something which not even Umno politicians have done. This hypocrisy extends further when they are also suing the very Tamil newspapers that gave them extensive positive coverage in the past all this showing their lack of gratitude and lack of tolerance for press freedom.

In fact, the Indian unity they talk about is a big sham as they are suing every Tamil mainstream newspaper in the country plus respected labour politics academic turned politician Prof P Ramasamy, community lawyer A Sivanesan, and the two selfless Hindraf ex-ISA detainees – Ganabatirau and Vasanthakumar (all members of the Indian community they claim to defend).

It is plainly obvious that this RM100 million ringgit suit is a threat against any dissenting voices and a warning to news organisations not to publish any news which happens to not paint a positive picture of them. In fact, their logic to sue the above mentioned individuals and organisations is highly perverted, as Ramasamy and Sivanesan merely asked the brothers to show the accounts for the money collected from mainly working class Indians.

Some of them who sold jewelry and used their retirement funds for the course of the Hindraf struggle. No accusations were actually made by them if you note the articles claimed by Waythamoorthy to be malicious.

But I suppose the Malay proverb ‘siapa makan cili, dia rasa pedas’ is a perfect explanation here. So syabas Uthayakumar and Waythamoorthy, your legal arguments are as breathtaking as your championing of Indian unity and press freedom.

I only wish Waythamoorthy will be as heroic as he portrays himself to be and finally find his moral fibre to return to Malaysia to testify as the plaintiff - surely winning RM100 million ringgit is an inducement huge enough?

But I somehow have a feeling he won’t leave the comfort of his London home eventually blaming the courts to be biased towards Pakatan Rakyat (due to a lack of understanding of separation of powers between federal and state government) when his case gets struck off. But only time will tell.