The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) today supported Kelana Jaya parliamentarian Loh Seng Kok for raising issues that reflected the sentiments of non-Muslims in the country.

"These matters must be looked into seriously by the government but instead as usual these are irresponsibly, recklessly, and conveniently termed sensitive," said its chairperson P Waytha Moorthy in a statement.

Hindraf, which claims to represent some 50 Hindu organisations, also took Umno Youth and its chief Hishamuddin Hussein to task.

On Wednesday, malaysiakini reported that some 50 Umno Youth members from the Kelana Jaya division had submitted a protest letter to Loh ( left ) at his office on the night of March 15.

During the brief meeting, which the Umno Youth members had recorded using several video cameras, the MP was told to respond to the letter or 'face action'.

On Wednesday, Hishamuddin, when commenting on this, called for religious discussions to be kept behind closed doors .

Loh had recently ruffled feathers with his speech at the Dewan Rakyat that touched on imbalanced history textbooks, Muslim prayer guidelines and problems faced by non-Muslims in relation to places or worship.

'Reckless response'

Meanwhile, Waytha Moorthy described the actions of the Kelana Jaya Umno Youth members as 'aggressive' and termed Hishamuddin's response as 'reckless'.

"The threat advanced via the media and by way of handing the (protest) letter is a provocative act attempting to dampen the rights to freedom of speech.

"The lack of ability to either handle and/or intelligently respond to such matters by them displays serious lack of exposure and political intelligence," he said.

"If such politicians continue to hold office the country would be left way behind and may develop a culture of primitive thinking," he added.

Waytha Moorthy said the Umno Youth chief's 'dreadful' remark tend to indicate that the Malaysian public do not posses the requisite mental ability to engage in a matured debate on religion.

"Hishammuddin is being manipulative of the situation and tends to misinterpret the truth to suit his political agenda. These are real stumbling blocks of a democracy.

"We are of the view that the letter of protest and the 'silent endorsement' by Hishamuddin is a deliberate act to suppress the revelation of truth and freedom to express and question the government," he added.

Hindraf called upon Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to seriously consider the proposals made by Loh and to advise his youth wing to behave in a 'mature and democratic' manner.