Thesun 2009-05-27 Page01 Najib To Verify Ppp Status

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No. 4767 PP 2644/12/2009 (023092)

Wednesday May 27, 2009

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Najib to verify PPP status K

UALA LUMPUR: In what is seen as a blow to the People’s Progressive Party’s credibility, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said yesterday he would verify the political party’s status before deciding whether to accept its invitation to open its general assembly. Najib, who is also the Barisan Nasional chairman, said the PPP had invited him to open the general assembly on June 7. “I will verify PPP’s status with the registrar of societies (ROS) first,” he told reporters after opening a Felda Group gathering here. The PPP was thrown into crisis when supreme council member Datuk T. Murugiah, who is a deputy minister, was sacked by the party after he said the ROS might de-register the party because its records have not been updated. To complicate matters, Murugiah got himself “elected” as “president” at what was billed an emergency general meeting in Putrajaya on Sunday.

PPP president Datuk M. Kayveas declared that the EGM was illegal as Murugiah had failed to notify the party’s secretary-general about it while his own branch had been deregistered by the ROS. Murugiah said he would leave it to the ROS to decide whether the EGM was lawful and whether he was the rightful PPP president. Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin met Kayveas over the issue, which had grabbed headlines and had invited unwanted attention at a time when there are political problems in Perak that needed to be resolved. After the meeting at the DPM’s office in Putrajaya, Kayveas said Muhyiddin had called for a swift end to the crisis, Bernama reported. Kayveas, who declined to reveal details of the steps taken to resolve the crisis, also said he had explained to Muhyiddin Murugiah’s status in the light of recent developments. He said he was prepared to have

discussions with Murugiah to resolve the crisis. “We can only resolve this through discussion but it seems that this won’t be happening as Murugiah is more interested in speaking to the media,” he said. Kayveas maintained that he was the rightful president of the party and that Murugiah had abused his power to hold the gathering. On claims that PPP had been deregistered, Kayveas said the issue would be resolved shortly when the party submitted documents to the ROS. In a related development, PPP Johor chairman Dr K. Siva Kumar filed a police report against Murugiah claiming Murugiah had misused a permit to organise Sunday’s emergency meeting. After filing his report at the Johor Sentral police station, Siva Kumar told reporters the police permit was given to hold a meeting with the public but it was turned into an EGM.

South Koreans protest A

banner with an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il with the words ‘No!’ and ‘Out!’ is displayed during a rally in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday in protest against the latest nuclear weapons test and firing of two short-range missiles by the north. In Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak expressed concern over the latest developments in North Korea and said Pyongyang’s display of nuclear capability will further heighten the tension in the Korean peninsula and affect the whole East Asian region. See Page 10

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Public transportation: The problems continue DEPENDING on public transport or owning a car comes with its own sets of problems. And it looks like whatever changes the government has made to the public transportation system and the road network have yet to resolve the myriad problems commuters face.

These were the woes as seen through the eyes of an NGO and a cabinet minister yesterday:

» Fomca wants public transporta-

tion upgrade Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (Fomca) yesterday sent

an open letter to the prime minister and his cabinet urging them to take immediate steps to improve the public transportation system. The letter said despite promises made by the government over the years, the situation had not changed. “We still find thousands of com-

muters, mainly low-income earners, having to face all sorts of hardships daily when travelling by public transport be it taxis, buses or trains,” Fomca secretary-general Muhammad Shaani Abdullah said. He said public transport should not be a profit-oriented undertaking, rather

a social service where the government subsidised the operator. He said by freeing the operator’s burden of making profit, he could then concentrate on improving the service.

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