The imminent resignation of Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia (PHM) chairperson P Waythamoorthy from his deputy minister post and his senatorship did not catch Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) by surprise.
 
A socialist party that is known for its championing of causes the grassroots poor, similar to the ambitions of PHM, PSM had already "anticipated" that Waythamoorthy would eventually resign from his posts.
 
For PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan (right), the partnership between BN and PHM was always going to be a "massive mismatch".
 
He was referring to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed just before the 13th general election, which led to Waythamoorthy getting a deputy minister's post in the Prime Minister's Department.
 
"Umno is a very corrupt party and it plays racial politics. You (Waythamoorthy) claim to be against racism but you work with Umno, so I think it was a massive mismatch," Arutchelvan said on the sidelines of the party's nationwide roadshow campaign today.
 
"I think Waythamoorthy feels like he has been taken for a ride," he added.
 
Movement splintered

Waythamoorthy's move to sign the MoU with BN, after futile negotiations with Pakatan, caused divisions in the original Hindraf movement, splintering it into two, and an open war of words commenced between his side and his brother P Uthayakumar, who did not agree with the MoU.
 
Uthayakumar (right) went on to contest as an Independent in the general election, while Waythamoorthy asked his supporters to pledge their votes for BN.
 
However, despite his cabinet post, Waythamoorthy had received brickbats from fellow BN ministers when he raised issues of death in custody and heritage destruction - issues that Hindraf has been fighting for all along.
 
He was even told to toe the government line by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak himself, and questions were being asked about the initial special unit that Najib had promised Waythamoorthy to deal with Indian issues.
 
PSM's Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar said that PHM has not addressed the issues of the Indian poor as it had aimed to.
 
Jeyakumar sees the failure of PHM to deliver, despite being made part of the government, as proof that its race-based approach in solving issues was misplaced.
 
"We believe in a class-based approach. You need to identify who are the allies for the Indian poor. The allies are the Chinese poor, the Malay poor and the Orang Asli poor.
 
"If you are going to demand quotas (as PHM has done), then the ones who will benefit are the rich in that particular race. That's the same thing that happened with the New Economic Policy (NEP). It is the rich Malays who have benefited more. There are still poor Malays," he added.
 
For Jeyakumar, PHM has a "fundamental flaw" in its political analysis, resulting in its followers being "misguided" into thinking that a class-based approach could solve their problems.