The leader of a banned ethnic Indian protest group said yesterday he would return to Malaysia from self-imposed exile in Britain after the release of three of his colleagues from detention without trial.
Malaysia released the last members of the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) on Friday. They were held under the Internal Security Act (ISA), a measure that allows indefinite detention on national security grounds.
COMRADES RELEASED
“Now that my comrades have been released, I have decided that I shall return to Malaysia to continue and forge ahead with the objectives and goals of HINDRAF in seeking what it had originally set out to, even at the risk of me being arrested under ISA or any other repressive laws,” the group’s chairman Waytha Moorthy said in a statement.
HINDRAF shot to fame in 2007 when it organized mass protests by the country’s ethnic Indian community, who account for 7 percent of the country’s 27 million population and who are among the most economically deprived.
Although a small grouping, Indian voters turned against the National Front coalition in national and state elections last year when the government that has ruled this Southeast Asian country for 51 years stumbled to its worst losses.
The Malaysian Indian Congress, which represents ethnic Indians and is a member of the coalition, was almost wiped out as a parliamentary force in the elections and is now seeking to woo HINDRAF into its fold.
POLITICAL PRISONERS
The HINDRAF detainees’ release allows Malaysia to say it no longer has any political prisoners held under the ISA.
Political analysts say the releases were window-dressing following dozens of arrests last week in the state of Perak.
Malaysian assets have been hit by heightened political risks and recently investment bank HSBC warned that both economic and political factors would weigh on the ringgit currency.
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