I refer to Malaysiakini's Hindraf a new force is born .

So as widely predicted, lawyer P Uthayakumar was arrested under the Sedition Act. Apart from the arrest of Uthayakumar, Malaysian authorities have made legal history by issuing others in the same organisation with restraining orders under Section 98 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The arrests and the government's response to dissent now will take centre stage in the international media and fora and certainly embarrass a leadership which preaches one thing abroad while practicing another domestically.

So far 'public opinion and sympathy' seems to be with Hindraf as they stand on moral high ground and as the arrest is widely believed to be an attempt to prevent the mass rally yesterday to address community woes, despite the non-issuance of a police permit.

Officially, the objective of the rally seems to be to gather 10,000 Indians to hand a memorandum addressed to the Queen of England to support a class-action suit against Her Majesty's government for bringing Indians to Malaysia as indentured labourers and exploiting them for 150 years.

A total of US$4 trillion (RM14 trillion) is being sought for US$2 million for every Indian residing in Malaysia.

But it does not take one to be a rocket scientist to know that the net result of that class action would embarrass the Malaysian government who has been rather vocal and taken the moral high ground in issues of human rights, justice governance and fair play in the international arena as it suits them while doing the exact opposite in domestic issues.

More so, with the rising allegations of discriminations against Indian Malaysians and the failure to address these issues with new tangible approaches and plan of action.

Instead of positive engagement and diffusion of tensions, threats, warnings, indulging in acts of defamation and using the law and its force to curtail dissent seems to be the official response to an alleged litany of woes the community faces from poverty, lack of scholarships, losing jobs to foreigners, discrimination and destruction of houses of worship, to cite a few.

For the record, Hindraf is certainly not a political party nor a full-fledged organisation, having a war chest in finances but the truth that cannot be denied is that they have been able to capture the hearts and minds of the both the professional, middle-class and the marginalised Indians by addressing the issues the way they have to date.

They have risked all, while others give lip service and speeches claiming to address the same community woes but have only addressed issues superficially, while enriching themselves with numerous royal honorifics and wealth while the community has fallen deeper into despair.

And no 'feel good stories', public relations pieces on Sundays, nor the 'mischievously distorted' articles of spin masters from the mainstream print and electronic media will be able to prevent that.

Now among Indian Malaysians, and in the eyes of the international observers, we have a new player now addressing Malaysian Indian community's woes called Hindraf.