PPP to other BN parties: Don’t take Murugiah in

(The Star) – Other component parties of the Barisan Nasional should not accept sacked People’s Progressive Party (PPP) leader Datuk T. Murugiah, the party’s state deputy chief Naran Singh said.

Naran, who is also PPP supreme council member, said for another component party to support and accept Murugiah would be against the Barisan spirit.

“It would show that there are no disciplinary procedures in Barisan when one party disciplines while another accepts him.

“We are supposed to work together and no Barisan component party should accept him,” Naran said.

On Sunday, Murugiah was reported as saying that he would announce early next month the name of the party he and his 157,000 supporters would be joining.

The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department had hinted that it was a peninsula-based multiracial party, which was a component of the Barisan, and that it had promised him the post of deputy president if he and his supporters joined it.

Murugiah, who was sacked from the PPP in June, further claimed that almost 90% of PPP members backed him and that he had to meet their wishes in finding an alternative party which suited them.

Hitting out at the claim, Naran said it was very misleading.

“He can’t just simply say that, as not even one state chief in the country supports him.

“So how can he claim that 90% of members support him, which means to say that all states support him?” Naran said.

Calling on Murugiah to follow the spirit of others who had quit their posts after quitting their parties, Naran said Murugiah should resign as a senator and deputy minister if he was a true leader.

“It was PPP that nominated him as a senator and deputy minister but now he is no longer a member.

“He is a party-less man,” he said.