Human Rights Party (HRP) pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar is willing to back fellow Kelantanese and Pakatan Rakyat coordinator Zaid Ibrahim in the forthcoming Hulu Selangor by-election.

Earlier the party said it would not get involved . However, this dramatic ‘about-turn' comes, in his words, with two ifs - one small and another big.

The small if: "Zaid should prevail on the other Ibrahim, Anwar, to approve land for all the 98 Tamil schools in Selangor," said Uthaya. "If he doesn't stand in Hulu Selangor as we expect, we will still support any other candidate who replaces him."

hindraf btn 151209 uthayakumar Tamil schools sitting on their own land, according to Uthaya ( right ), would be eligible for federal government aid and grants. "We need to educate all our children irrespective of who they are including the stateless, foreigners, illegals and refugees. Children are the future of the nation and the world."

Uthaya disclosed that his party, the unofficial political wing of Hindraf, has a long list of more than 100 Indian issues to take up with the authorities. But for the moment he would be happy to settle for the resolution of one issue - land for Tamil schools in Selangor.

"We don't want grand announcements and hollow pledges," warned Uthaya. "We want the state government to pledge in writing. The media will be our witness."

Once bitten twice shy, continued Uthaya, "considering what a disappointment Lim Guan Eng - the Penang chief minister - has been."

In the absence of a written pledge, the fear among Indian voters is that they would be forgotten again after one brief moment of glory as kingmakers.

The moment that the Selangor government makes its pledge in writing on land for Tamil schools in the state, HRP will be ready to reconsider its earlier position of studied neutrality in Hulu Selangor.

"Our members and activists from Hindraf will be ready to spring into action to bring in the votes for Zaid or whoever else stands in place of him," swore Uthaya. "MIC won't be a problem because they have actually written off the Indian votes."

Pakatan can win

The HRP chief estimates that Pakatan can win in Hulu Selangor - a BN stronghold - if it bags a little over 4,000 of the 12,000-odd Indian votes.

This coupled with the majority of Chinese votes and a significant minority of Malay votes is sufficient to deny BN the parliamentary seat, according to Uthaya.

He reckons that BN doesn't need the Indian votes to win but fielding an Indian candidate would be a bonus for them.

Earlier, before he came up with the land for Tamil schools proposal, Uthaya had asked Zaid whether he could cite even one instance where he spoke up seriously on Indian issues.

NONE "We will help in Hulu Selangor if Zaid ( left ) can do that," said Uthaya. "He may have done so (speaking up) on some minor issues but even here we are not sure."

The big ‘if'

The big ‘if' to win HRP's and Hindraf's support in Hulu Selangor is that the Selangor state government take the lead to stop ‘mandore politics'.

Uthaya didn't ask for any written pledges here and this is more for future ties between HRP/Hindraf and Pakatan.

Uthaya explained ‘mandore politics' as a situation where Indian legislators in the opposition, as in the BN, were reduced to the level of mandores in dealing with the community.

The work of the mandore politician is to announce empty pledges and have these suitably recorded in the Tamil media.

"We can see why mandore politics is happening in the opposition alliance," said Uthaya. "Just like Samy Vellu and his MIC, the opposition alliance thinks that Indians are more foolish than the Malays and Chinese when it comes to politics."

Uthaya pointed out that the Chinese and Malay communities, unlike Indians, are not plagued by the problem of mandore politics "because they would not tolerate this supreme insult for even a moment".

The HRP chief sees a bleak future for the opposition alliance unless it can work together with his party and Hindraf to create a wave that would translate into votes. Of particular concern is the 67 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia where the Indians are the deciding factor.

Zaid yet to respond

Zaid was not immediately available for comment. Uthaya's proposal, communicated to him via text message, drew no response.

Earlier, before Uthaya came up with the carrots for Zaid, the latter confessed in a text message that he had no idea who would be the PKR candidate for Hulu Selangor. He did not indicate whether he would be interested.

But it learnt that he's keen to stand in Hulu Selangor provided he stands a 50-50 chance. Apparently he doesn't mind even losing in the process as long as he does well in the by-election in terms of the votes garnered.

NONE However Hindraf chair Waythamoorthy ( right ), speaking from Singapore, fears for Zaid in Hulu Selangor if Anwar continues labeling Hindraf as racist.

"Anwar called Hindraf racist twice within a week recently," fumed Waythamoorthy. "He told a Tamil daily in Kuala Lumpur that Hindraf was racist and repeated the same thing in London a week later."

Ironically, said Waythamoorthy, Anwar's people at the same time keep appealing to him to highlight the Sodomy II trial in the international theatre.

The Early Day Motion on Anwar Ibrahim, introduced not so long ago in the British Parliament, is one such effort that Hindraf has made in recent weeks, stressed Waythamoorthy.

"At least the man should show a little gratitude," he added.