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By Shahanaaz Habib, The Star There was more drama on the PPP front with a past president and “adviser’’ calling on current president Datuk M. Kayveas to step down.
Former president S. I. Rajah rapped Kayveas for issuing an ultimatum to Barisan Nasional to abolish the Internal Security Act (ISA) before the next general election or that he would pull the party out of the ruling coalition. “In making such a statement, Kayveas should have obtained the consensus of the grassroots members by holding a referendum – which he did not,” he said in a statement yesterday. On Tuesday, Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the government had no intention of abolishing the ISA and that PPP was free to leave Barisan if it wanted to. Claiming to be the PPP adviser, Rajah said he had met the Barisan chairman and secretary-general at Parliament yesterday morning and gave them an undertaking that PPP would not leave Barisan. He said there were two options open for Kayveas – either to pull the party out of the coalition or resign as the party president. However PPP office bearers rallied behind Kayveas. Vice-president Datuk Maglin D.Cruz said Rajah had no right to make the statement as he was not even a PPP member any more. “Who is he to tell the party president to step down? He (Rajah) is a nobody. I haven’t seen him in the party for over 12 years now. And, he is certainly not the party adviser,” he said. Maglin had attended Tuesday’s Barisan supreme council meeting because Kayveas was overseas. He said PPP would be holding a press conference today over the pull out. In Malacca, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam has joined others who have told the PPP that it was free to leave the Barisan Nasional. He said the threat to leave if the ISA was not amended was a cheap publicity stunt. Saying the ISA was still crucial to maintain peace and security, Mohd Ali added that PPP’s departure would have no impact on the coalition.
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