P. Uthayakumar
| Uthayakumar Ponnusamy | |
|---|---|
| Born |
7 November 1961 Johor, Federation of Malaya |
| Nationality | Malaysian |
| Other names | P. Uthayakumar Uthaya |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Board member of | HINDRAF legal advisor |
| Parent(s) | Ponnusamy s/o Arunasalam |
| Relatives | P. Waytha Moorthy, P. Waytha Nayagi |
Uthayakumar s/o Ponnusamy (born 7 November 1961) is a Malaysian lawyer of Tamil origin. He is the older brother of P. Waytha Moorthy, HINDRAF (the Hindu Rights Action Force) lawyer who headed a team of lawyers to file a class action suit against the United Kingdom for "abandoning minority Indians to the mercy of majoritarian Malay rule while granting independence on August 31, 1957". Although Uthayakumar is only a legal advisor of HINDRAF, a coalition of several non-governmental organisations, he is regarded as the de facto leader of HINDRAF.
Uthayakumar was born on 7 November 1961 to Ponnusamy s/o Arunasalam, a train driver who was a first generation immigrant. Uthayakumar's paternal grandfather, Arunasalam was a citizen of British India in present-day India. Arunasalam was brought into Malaysia then known as Malaya to work as a labourer in a rubber estate.
Uthayakumar was brought up in Kelantan, where 99 percent of the population is Malay, 0.9 percent Chinese and 0.1 percent Indian. This enabled him to speak fluent Kelantan Malay. He revealed that he had a Malay girlfriend for five years, but because he had to convert to Islam to marry her, Uthayakumar had to go his separate way. In an interview with Malaysiakini, Uthayakumar said that he was very patriotic to the point that he called himself a Malaysian and at one point refused to visit India. He also wore a pin of the Malaysian flag on his blazer during his student times, despite the fact that his friends poked fun at him. When Uthayakumar started his legal firm, he put a Malaysian flag on his working desk. Uthayakumar took off the flag after the Kampung Medan incident because;
I believe that as much as I want to be Malaysian, the Malay majority Muslim do not want me as a Malaysian, they do not recognize me as a Malaysian, they do not accept me as a Malaysian
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