Najib disheartened by Waytha Moorthy’s resignation
Describing P. Waytha Moorthy (pic) resignation as “disheartening,” Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that the Hindraf chief should have discussed his resignation with him before doing it.
“His approach may be different, but he should have come to see me and talked about it before announcing he was going to resign.
“His decision is disheartening, since this was after he had signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Barisan Nasional to champion the Indian community’s agenda,” Najib said in a statement today confirming the resignation.
Najib said he accepted the Indian-rights activist resignation and wished Waytha Moorthy well in his future endeavours.
Waytha Moorthy, he said, should have tried to work with the administration and work with colleagues to implement Putrajaya’s projects that would fulfil his cause.
“I would like to stress that, in line with my dream to form a more approachable government that always gives help to those who need it, we will implement socio-economic development programmes for the Indian community, as well as the other races,” Najib said in the statement.
Waythamoorthy resigned on Monday, claiming Putrajaya had been “dragging its feet” in delivering its promises to aid the poor Malaysian Indian community.
In the run up to the 13th general election, Hindraf signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Barisan Nasional, where the coalition promised Hindraf to tackle the community's problems, such as poverty, youth crime and a lack of educational opportunities, if it was returned to power with Hindraf's help.
After the national polls, Waytha joined the cabinet in a widely criticised move.
Since news of Waytha's resignation, the MIC deputy president Datuk Seri Dr S.Subramaniam has come out to say Waytha Moorthy's departure from government would not affect the representation of the Indian community in the government.
"I don't think they (Hindraf) could have raised any issues which have not been raised before, because we have raised all those possible issues. It's a matter of implementation to our (MIC) satisfaction,” Subramaniam had said.
Former Hindraf legal adviser R. Kengadharan described Waytha as a "broken man" as the BN government had failed to implement its pledges.
"He joined the prime minister's administration on the basis that the government will encourage the implementation of programmes for poor Indians and that he could oversee them," he told The Malaysian Insider yesterday. - February 14, 2014.
