Street protest not Makkal Sakti Party's way

Some say “old habits die hard”.

But new Indian-based party in country, Malaysian Makkal Sakti Party (MMSP), intends to prove otherwise.

MMSP, formed by a breakaway group of Hindu Rights Action Force, will however not be doing what Hindraf is best at.

According its founding president RS Thanenthiran, MMSP will not emulate Hindraf in going to the streets to press the government to attend to the needs of the much neglected Indian Malaysian community.

Instead, the party prefers to exhaust all available diplomatic channels in negotiating with the relevant authorities in achieving its goals.

“Going to streets may make one popular, but it will not necessarily resolve the problems at hand,” he told a press conference at MMSP office in Butterworth, Penang this morning.

“If we can sit, talk and resolve the issues, it would be needless (for us) to resort to street protests.”

Also present at the press conference were MMSP secretary-general R Kannan and other top party leaders.

Thanenthiran nevertheless did not rule out street protests in future should his party failed to achieve its goals through other means.

“We will see,” he quipped, adding that for time being MMSP would remain a neutral party not linked to the two major political blocks – Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.

“We will deal with both BN and PR governments. It would be easier to negotiate with these political groups to get things done by being neutral.”

Asked whether MMSP has the blessings of London-based Hindraf leader P Waythamoorthy and his elder brother, former Internal Security Act detainee Uthayakumar, Thanenthiran claimed to have received a certain ‘signal of approval’ from Britain.

“Waythamoorthy has said that I have my constitutional rights and grassroots support to form a political party. I take it as a signal to allow me to form the party,” he said.

When contacted, Waythamoorthy categorically denied he had given his blessings to MMSP.

“What I said was Thanenthiran has his rights to form a party of his own. That does not mean, I support MMSP nor give my blessing to it,” he told Malaysiakini.

MMSP meets PM Najib

MMSP was formed last month by breakaway former Hindraf leaders, prompting rumours that BN leaders, including Prime Minister NajibAbdul Razak, are behind it.

But, according to Thanenthiran, the Hindraf defectors needed a legal platform to air their views and opinions on Indian issues.

He claimed that MMSP has so far signed up 30,000 members across the nation.

Thanenthiran however conceded for the first time he had led a MMSP delegation to meet Najib recently to hand over a memorandum seeking the federal government’s help to improve the lot of Indian Malaysians.

He revealed that MMSP will take up the issue of non-citizenship faced by some 60,000 Indian Malaysians, apart from seeking more business and employment opportunities for the community in government-linked companies (GLCs) and public sector, and tackling problems pertaining to temples and Tamil schools.

While MMSP leaders are trying hard to change the public presumption regarding their alleged allegiance to BN, Thanethiran’s open support for Najib’s ‘1Malaysia’ concept would not help its cause.

“We will support the implementation of the 1Malaysia concept to avoid discrimination and marginalisation of any community,” he said.

His support is expected to give more weight to the accusation that MMSP was another pro-BN Indian-based party.