Chapter 24

Ipoh Forum at Hokkien Hall on Friday 2/11/2007 @ 8. 00 p. m.

As we did not want to over stress ourselves and especially with our total inexperience in nationwide roadshows what more on public interest matters, we initially planned a two week gap between one forum and the next. But we were getting on avalanche of telephone calls from people wanting to host these forums at their respective hometowns and at their own expense. I even received a phone call from one Kamalanathan whom I have had some differences with when we were in Parti Keadilan Nasional some ten years prior to that. Kamalanathan volunteered to organise a forum at Puchong at his own cost. I told him that our diary for a Friday, Saturday and Sunday was full right up to the 25th day of November 2007 and that we could only consider a date after that the 25th day of November 2007. Waytha Moorthy had about just resumed working at a legal firm in Ipoh for his former boss Mr Singh that he had worked for when he first started legal
practice about twelve years ago. There was not enough legal work for him and his wife Nageswari also a Barrister at Law but of Grays Inn at their Seremban based legal firm of M/S Kumar Hashimah & Co. Like myself, Waytha Moorthy was also swayed more by the social causes we had been championing and the Hindraf work rather than building up his legal career. Like myself Waytha Moorthy had neglected the business aspect of his legal firm. I ran the Kuala Lumpur office of M/S Kumar Hashimah & Co which was forced to be closed down in May 2008. Because of his involvement in Hindraf and the adverse media publicity his boss was frightened and discreetly told him to leave. Waytha Moorthy accordingly gave two months notice but was forced to leave for exile in London even before this two months was up.