Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy

Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy sometimes spelled Waythamoorthy (Tamil: வேதமூர்த்தி பொன்னுசாமி, Vētamūrtti poṉṉucāmi; born 16 July 1966) is a Malaysian politician, lawyer and activist formerly serving as the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of National Unity and Social Wellbeing since 2018 under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in the current Cabinet of the Pakatan Harapan coalition. In addition, he has also served as the Senator in the Dewan Negara, the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Malaysia since 2018 after being appointed by his majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong Abdullah. He is a Barrister from Lincoln's Inn and began his career as a lawyer in Malaysia in 1997. Waytha's work involved public interest litigation relating to arbitrary arrests, unlawful deaths in police custody, extrajudicial killings; police abuse of detainees; denial of the grant of citizenship status to ethnic Indians born in Malaysia, forced conversion of ethnic Indians to Islam, unlawful demolition of Hindu Temples or places of worship; and denial of government compensation to ethnic Indian Estate/Plantation workers. Much of Waytha's work was done pro bono due to a lack of public funds allocated to those areas of the law. He is well known among Malaysian Indians as the Founder of Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) and his domestic and international campaign to fight discrimination against Malaysian Hindus.