PPP's Murugiah and six party members sacked

KUALA LUMPUR: Senator Datuk T. Murugiah and six others have been expelled from the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) by its disciplinary board for allegedly tarnishing the good name of the party and trying to get it de-registered.

Party president Datuk M. Kayveas said Murugiah, a supreme council member, was sacked for using his deputy minister’s office in the Prime Minister’s Department to organise a press conference for his personal assistant Dr N.A. Shanmuganathan, and making defamatory remarks against the party and its leadership.

“Murugiah used a bankrupt to carry out the defamatory remarks so that the party would not be able to take any legal action against the bankrupt,” he said during tea break at the party’s supreme council meeting Saturday.

He added that Murugiah also threatened the party lawyer and a supreme council member by saying that he would use all his powers to get PPP de-registered.

The others who were expelled were M. Jeyaratnam, Shanmuganathan, K. Tanggaraju, S. Kanesan, S. Saravanan and R. Rajandran.

They can appeal to the supreme council in writing, within 14 days from the date of the decision, Kayveas said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, when asked if he would intervene in the dispute between Kayveas and Murugiah, said: “I am thinking about it. I have not decided what position to take.”

On a threat by Kayveas to pull out from Barisan Nasional, Najib said anything to do with the ruling coalition would be discussed at its supreme council meeting.

Meanwhile, earlier in IPOH, Murugiah had maintained that “everything was going well” between him and Kayveas.

Asked if he was willing to meet Kayveas over the matter, he said: “He is still my boss, my leader. I respect him as a leader. I am still loyal to him.” However, when pressed if he would meet his president, Murugiah declined comment.

Murugiah, who heads the Public Complaints Bureau, added that his relationship with Kayveas was “still the same” as he still considered the latter as his leader.

He also clarified that he met Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, and not Kayveas, to relate his side of the story after allegations of the money politics broke out.

He said he needed to clarify the matter with Najib because these were serious allegations that would affect the Government and the Cabinet.

Selangor PPP and supporters of Murugiah lashed out at Kayveas, accusing him of corruption and misusing his powers.

Disgruntled state exco members said they would call for an emergency general meeting next week and table a motion of no-confidence against Kayveas and Selangor PPP chairman Datuk Maglin D’Cruz.

“We are doing this because of his (Kayveas’) actions to sack members without consulting the disciplinary board as well Maglin’s negligence towards the members,” said PPP Selayang branch chairman, K. Tanggaraju in a press conference at Brickfields.

There were nine out of 18 Selangor PPP exco members who were present at the press conference but Tanggaraju assured that there are 12 in total who will support the motion of no confidence against Kayveas.

It also learnt that Dr. Shanmuganathan and Selangor PPP members filed a police report against Kayveas later today and requested MACC and ROS to investigate the party’s accounts.