Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad speaks to the media at the Malaysian Agricultural Expo Park (MAEPS), November 22, 2018. — Picture by Hari Anggara

SERDANG, Nov 22 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has defended his minister P. Waytha Moorthy today following backlash over the latter’s old video, saying everyone has their own past.

The prime minister also assured the public that the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) chairman has changed his stance, acknowledging Waytha Moorthy’s frustration when he was recorded making his remark almost a decade ago.

“With regards to Waytha Moorthy, we all have a background. Like me, I was in Umno last time, but don’t tell me that because I was in Umno, I cannot join the Pakatan Harapan coalition.

“At that time, he was very disappointed, he made that statement, and the statement was because he wanted to show foreigners that in Malaysia, there is no justice,” Dr Mahathir told a press conference here.

Responding to an online petition calling for Waytha to resign, Dr Mahathir said such petitions have no official standing.

“Well people can make petitions. Petitions are not necessarily orders for you to resign. They can make a petition. If Waytha Moorthy wants to resign, he can, but he doesn’t want to resign,” he said.

He also urged the public to give Waytha a chance, following a viral photo showing ethnic Indians appointed as his aides as the unity and social wellbeing minister.

“I mean he’s just starting. The people he knows, he appoints, but he cannot appoint people he doesn’t know. Most of the people he knows must be from Hindraf or from the Indian community,” Dr Mahathir added.

Earlier this week, Waytha explained that the viral interview with a Dutch TV station happened after the mammoth Hindraf rally in November 2007 at which hundreds of protesters were arrested.

The old video has been used by Umno, PAS, and Islamist groups as an excuse to call for his resignation, and to oppose the ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).

The Hindraf chairman said his activism was public and widely known globally, and Barisan Nasional and Umno had even approached him in 2013 to address the issues of the ethnic Indian community.

Waytha was appointed deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department after BN won the 2013 general election. He later resigned the next year citing dissatisfactions with BN’s handling of the problems affecting the Indian community here.