M. Moorthy

M. Moorthy
Born	Moorthy Maniam
Died	20 December 2005 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory
Spouse(s)	Kaliammal Sinnasamy
Children	Thenesvari (aged 9 in 2006)

M. Moorthy (Moorthy Maniam), was a corporal in the Malaysian Army and a member of the first group of Malaysians to successfully climb Mount Everest. He was a Malaysian Indian born and raised Hindu.

Moorthy joined the armed forces in 1988. He was one of ten people in the Malaysia Everest 1997 team among whom two members, M. Magendran and N. Mohanadas, became the first Malaysians who climbed to the summit of Mount Everest, reaching the peak on 23 May 1997. On 14 August of the following year, while at the Sungai Udang army camp in Melaka, he fell during a training exercise and became paralysed from the waist down. According to his wife, his mental faculties also declined in parallel with his physical condition; he suffered emotional disturbances and short-term memory loss, and once forgot the way back to his house and had to telephone for help. Records of the Malaysian Armed Forces state that he embraced Islam on 11 October 2004 and filed an application with his superiors to be registered as such on 8 March 2005; however, his military identity card was never modified to reflect this change of religion or his reported new Muslim name of Mohammad Abdullah. His older brother Muhammad Hussein, formerly known as Maniam Sugumaran (born c. 1958), had earlier converted to Islam after getting married to a Muslim woman in Sabah. His younger brother Shangalingam (born c. 1980) remained a Hindu. Despite his conversion to Islam, Moorthy remained uncircumcised, still took part in Hindu festivals, ate pork, and drank alcohol; he appeared on television on 31 October 2005, being interviewed about his celebration of Deepavali. On 11 November 2005, he fell from his wheelchair, injuring his head and entering into a coma from which he would never recover.

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