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

Wednesday
May 27, 2009
TELLING IT AS IT IS www.sun2surf.com

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Spreading pg19
the laughs EPAPIX

Najib to verify
K
PPP status
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 invita-
tion to open its general assembly.
Najib, who is also the Barisan
Nasional chairman, said the PPP had
invited him to open the general as-
sembly 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 af-
ter 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 de-
registered 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 Minis-
ter 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
South Koreans protest
filed a police report against Murugiah
claiming Murugiah had misused a 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
permit to organise Sunday’s emer-
gency meeting. and firing of two short-range missiles by the north. In Kuala Lumpur,
After filing his report at the Johor Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak expressed concern over
Sentral police station, Siva Kumar told the latest developments in North Korea and said Pyongyang’s display
reporters the police permit was given of nuclear capability will further heighten the tension in the Korean
to hold a meeting with the public but peninsula and affect the whole East Asian region.
it was turned into an EGM. »
See Page 10

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 trans-
port 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.
» Turn to Page 3