Hindu Rights Action Force, better known by its acronym HINDRAF (, ); is a Malaysian Hindu-activist non-governmental organisation (NGO) whose slogan is Makkal Sakti (மக்கள் சக்தி) or Kuasa Rakyat translated as People's Power. The organisation began as a coalition of 30 Hindu NGOs committed to the preservation of Hindu rights and heritage in a multiracial Malaysia.Hindu group protests "temple cleansing" in Malaysia
HINDRAF has had an impact on the political landscape of Malaysia by staging the 2007 HINDRAF rally. Following a rally organised by HINDRAF in November 2007, several prominent members of the organisation were arrested, some on charges of sedition. The charges were dismissed by the courts. Five people were arrested and detained without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA). Toward the end of the 2000s, the group developed a broader political program to preserve and to push for equal rights and opportunities for the minority Indians. It is focused on drawing attention to the racist aspects of Malaysian Government policies.
HINDRAF was deregistered by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) on 15 July 2019, but court cases to challenge the deregistration has been ongoing since 2020.
Background Between April and May 2006, several legal Hindu temples were demolished by city hall authorities in Malaysia.Temple row - a dab of sensibility please, malaysiakini.com On 21 April 2006, the Malaimel Sri Selva Kaliamman Temple in Kuala Lumpur was reduced to rubble after the city hall sent in bulldozers.Muslims Destroy Century-Old Hindu Temple , gatago.com
The Hindu Rights Action Force or HINDRAF, a coalition of several NGOs have protested these demolitions by lodging complaints with the Prime Minister of Malaysia of Barisan Nasional (BN) ruling coalition at that time but have received no response."Hindu group protests 'temple cleansing' in Malaysia" , Financial Express Many Hindu advocacy groups have protested what they allege is a systematic plan of temple cleansing in Malaysia. The official reason given by the Malaysian government has been that the temples were built illegally. However, that several of the temples are centuries old. According to a lawyer for HINDRAF, one Hindu temple is demolished in Malaysia every three weeks.Malaysia ethnic Indians in uphill fight on religion Reuters India - 8 November 2007
Events Arrests in October 2007 On 30 October, four HINDRAF movement activists, M. Manoharan, P. Uthayakumar, P. Waytha Moorthy and V. Ganabathirau, were arrested and detained for taking part in the 2007 HINDRAF demonstration against the demolition of a Hindu shrine in Kuala Lumpur. However, they were acquitted due to a lack of evidence of incitement and sedition.
Human rights forum A series of peaceful weekend forums were organised throughout Malaysia to increase the awareness of Hindu human rights by HINDRAF. A previous forum held near central Kuala Lumpur was disrupted by the Royal Malaysian Police, according to HINDRAF.POLICE ATTEMPTS TO SABOTAGE HINDRAF FORUM IN SEMENYIH ON 6.10.2007
Subsequently, HINDRAF appealed directly to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) in an attempt to ensure future forums went on peacefully.
Arrests in November On 23 November 2007, three HINDRAF activists, P. Uthayakumar, P. Waytha Moorthy, and V. Ganabathirau, were arrested and charged under the Sedition Act. However, in a series of repeated arrests and releases, the courts could not prove that they had incited racial hatred. The only evidence against them were unreliable translations of their Tamil speeches into Bahasa Malaysia presented by the Attorney-General's Chambers, which the courts deemed as unverifiable. Eventually, they were all acquitted due to a shaky prosecution and the lack of evidence of any wrongdoing or crime.
Lawsuit, petition and rally
On 31 August 2007, the 50th anniversary of Malaysia's Independence, P. Waytha Moorthy, a HINDRAF lawyer filed a class action suit against the Government of the United Kingdom at the Royal Courts of Justice in London for US$4 trillion (US$1 million for every Malaysian Indian) for "withdrawing after granting independence and leaving the Indians unprotected and at the mercy of a majority Malay-Muslim government that has violated our rights as minority Indians" as the negligence of the supposedly independent and fair Reid Commission's responsibility in drafting the Federal Constitution of Federation of Malaya as guaranteed in the constitution when independence of Peninsular Malaysia was granted then. Particulars of Claim.
The lawsuit is not only claiming 4 trillion British Pounds as compensation, it is also seeking to strike out Article 153 of the Malaysian Constitution which acknowledges Malay Supremacy and for the court to declare that Malaysia is a secular state and not an Islamic state.
As the group, which represents mainly working class Malaysian Indians, could not afford the legal fees required, a petition was circulated with 100,000 signatures to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II to appoint a Queen's Counsel to argue the case. The purpose of the rally was to hand over a 100,000 signature memorandum to the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur.
HINDRAF organised the rally on 25 November 2007 to submit the petition at the British High Commission. One day before the rally, police arrested three HINDRAF lawyers; Uthayakumar, Waytha Moorthy and Ganabathirau on sedition charges. Uthayakumar and Ganabathirau posted bail of 800 Malaysian ringgits each, but Waytha Moorthy refused bail as a sign of protest. Daily Express, East Malaysia Independent Newspaper The Standard Hong Kong
Malaysian police refused to grant a permit for the rally, and set up roadblocks in Klang Valley along roads leading up to the rally to screen motorists entering the city centre and identify "troublemakers".Detikdaily - Hindraf rally: Arrests, roadblocks will make it worse They also advised the public not to participate in the rally, and arrested three HINDRAF leaders. Many shops around Kuala Lumpur including Suria KLCC were closed on that day for fear of trouble from the rally.
The police roadblocks began the week before the rally to create massive traffic jams across the city and the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) pointed out that this high-handed act by the police was unnecessary as it caused major inconvenience to everyone.
On the morning of the rally, an estimated twenty thousand people gathered near the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, carrying life-size portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and Mahatma Gandhi, to indicate the nonviolent nature of their protest. Five thousand members riot police dispatched to the scene used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowds. 136 people were arrested.Cops forced to use tear gas, water cannons
Al-Jazeeras coverage of the event showed police officers using tear gas to disperse the protesters. A few hundred protesters and three police officers were injured.
The protest at the Batu Caves resulted in minor property damages, although the Hindu temple itself was not damaged.
HINDRAF later claimed to have faxed the petition to the British High Commission staff. However, as of 28 November, the British Envoy had not yet received any petition from the HINDRAF, though they did say they had received some unspecified information by fax.
Response from the government The BN government under Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had attempted to link terrorism with the HINDRAF rally via the media.
As of 11 December 2007, HINDRAF leaders were all acquitted by the judicial courts due to a lack of evidence and a flimsy prosecution case against their allegations. To contain the movement while not being able to charge them according to valid evidence-based legal processes, on 12 December 2007 Abdullah Badawi personally signed the detention letters to imprison the HINDRAF leaders under the ISA for two years. Their detention terms are subject to infinite renewal. The reason given for this arrest was that the HINDRAF leadership has had links with international militant organisations such as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and also organisations like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in India. The invocation of the ISA to capture the HINDRAF leaders was seen as a strategic move by the BN's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) government to arrest the momentum generated by HINDRAF.
The UMNO-led Government has threatened the Malaysian Indian community with sweeping arrests under the Emergency Act and ISA similarly to the 1987 Operasi Lalang which had targeted anti-BN elements mostly of Malaysian Chinese extraction in Malaysia. This hard-line approach is also softened by the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a component party of the ruling BN, reconciliatory approach to blunt HINDRAF's thrust as the champion of the Malaysian Indian community.
Response to the detentions Even as prime minister Abdullah Badawi started threatening to use the ISA against the HINDRAF leaders for bringing Malaysia's racist policies out into the open for all to see, foreign news outlets criticised Abdullah Badawi's lack of initiative to tackle the root cause of the problem. The detention without trial of the HINDRAF leaders drew negative comments in the foreign press about Abdullah Badawi's administration and the poor way the BN government was handling the issue.
The DAP vowed to challenge the detention of the HINDRAF leaders. Despite the arrests, the opposition and most of the NGOs were unfazed and continued to challenge UMNO's deconstruction of democracy in Malaysia. The United States also voiced their disapproval of this latest round of ISA arrests.
The official HINDRAF website at http://www.policewatchmalaysia.com has been allowed by Malaysian ISPs again, after a brief ban. However, this site is constantly plagued by faults and downtime. In response to the ban, sites such as http://www.hindraf.org, http://www.myhindraf.com were spawned to maintain awareness of this movement, in addition to the many blogs available. The movement started in Malaysia, has grown global and now has following in UK, Australia, Canada and USA.
There have also been candlelight vigils at Hindu temples throughout Malaysia to protest the detention of five leaders of the HINDRAF. This was condemned by Malaysian minister Samy Vellu of MIC."Malaysian minister slams pro-Hindraf campaign", Yahoo! India News, January 28, 2008
War of the Roses A calm and peaceful 'Rose to the PM' campaign was mooted to present a humanistic element in HINDRAF's campaign. The central focus of this campaign was the delivery of a rose, as a symbol of love and compassion, to the Prime Minister at the Parliament by Vwaishnavi Wathya Moorthy. This symbolic act was planned on 16 February 2008, amidst the parliament was declared to be dissolved for the general election on 13 February 2008.
In a dramatic show of force instead, the police fired teargas and targeted water cannon at several hundred ethnic Tamils gather peacefully at the centre of Kuala Lumpur. More than 200 people were detained by the authorities after being attacked by the police near the site of an Indian temple.
Impact on GE12
The 2008 Malaysian general election (GE12) showed how HINDRAF had become one of the triggers for a major change in the course of the country. The general dissatisfaction with the regime ruled by UMNO had been brewing for some years and the HINDRAF Rally of 25 November 2007 caused what has been called a political tsunami inclined to opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in Malaysian politics then.