The lawyer said his own disastrous defeat in the 2013 general election as an independent candidate for the Kota Raja parliamentary and Sri Andalas seats in Selangor went to show that Indians placed their faith in Pakatan Rakyat.
“These days, I am concentrating on rebuilding my legal practice to earn a living,” he told FMT.
He said this in response to former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim urging him and younger brother Waythamoorthy to patch up and start a political party.
“There’s no one better than Hindraf to help dismantle the privileges of the rich and corrupt,” Zaid said in a recent posting in his blog.
The former Umno leader recalled Nov 25, 2007 when Hindraf took to the streets with thousands of supporters and shook up the establishment
“They were resolute and unafraid, but it was all in vain.”
Zaid felt its leaders would not be able to represent the working class Indians unless they get elected.
Uthayakumar said Waythamoorthy’s decision to join the Barisan Nasional and his brother’s appointment as a deputy minister later was a master stroke by Prime Minister Najib Razak to “kill my political career among the Indians”.
“Following Waythamoorthy’s decision to join BN, the public’s perception was that Hindraf leaders had been bought over.”
He said the rejection by voters in both the seats he contested, which had 30 to 35 per cent Indian voters, sent a clear message that the community placed its faith in the then Pakatan Rakyat.
Siti Mariah of PAS retained the Kota Raja parliamentary seat while the Sri Andalas state seat was won by Xavier Jayakumar of PKR. Uthayakumar lost his deposit in both seats.
“The Indians feel Pakatan will save them. But is that the case in Selangor and Penang?” asked the former Internal Security Act detainee who spent 30 months in jail following his conviction for sedition in 2013
He said the Registrar of Societies (RoS) refused to register both Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia and the Human Rights Party.
“We appealed right up to the Federal Court to reverse the ROS’ decisions in both cases but failed.”
He said Hindraf, now under Waythamoorthy, could not also be registered as an NGO.
Hindraf was set up in 2005 with Uthayakumar as its leader to champion the cause of poor Indians, including raising the issue of deaths in police custody.
Following the detention of Uthayakumar and four others under the ISA in 2007, the organisation was briefly helmed by its co-ordinator, R S Thanenthiran, who later formed The Malaysia Makkal Sakti Party to join the BN.
Waythamoorthy, who was in self exile in London, returned home to lead Hindraf and signed a memorandum of understanding with the BN just before the 13th General Election.
However, he resigned his government position the following year, claiming that Najib had failed to honour Hindraf’s blueprint to uplift the poor in the Indian community.