I'll finish Murugiah, says PPP chief

People's Progressive Party president M Kayveas has said he will bankrupt his protege-turned-nemesis Murugiah and resort to the courts to stop him from using the party's name for his political agenda.

"Enough is enough!" said a furious Kayveas, "This empty vessel is not only after my post but now he has gone too far and is trying to destroy the party, which I will never allow.

"I have been keeping quiet as I know the law is on my side but now I have to show him my power as the party's leader."

Malaysiakini understands that numerous applications for court injunctions will be initiated by party members from the various states beginning next week to gag Murugiah.

Kayveas (left) said he was questioned by many as why he stayed silent and kept a low profile while Murugiah was soaking up the limelight of media publicity with his many political stunts.

"The reason is simple. I'm confident the prime minister will solve this problem. That is why I had kept quiet about Murugiah's political stunts to manoeuvre me out of my post."

Kayveas is expected to have a meeting with premier Najib Abdul Razak next week before deciding to give the directive to state party members to go ahead with the injunctions against Murugiah .

'I'm running out of patience'

State party leaders, had on several occasions, urged Kayveas to put a stop to Murugiah's political gimmicks but the party chief had held back out of respect for Najib.

Kayveas said: "Now my patience is running out. He is making many policy statements pertaining to my party although he has been sacked. He has no locus standi to make such statements.

"I was warned 10 years ago by several party members to think twice about taking him in as a party member as he is a snake and can destroy the party and its leader.

"But I threw caution to the wind and took him out of sympathy and now I'm seeing his true colours. He is trying to destroy me and the party which I had built up over the years."

"Without Kayveas, there is no Murugiah (right) as it is I who had groomed him to be what he is today.
He has forgotten this and now is both power and publicity crazy."

Kayveas has challenged Murugiah to make the defamatory statements to his face instead of hiding behind his cronies and urging them to issue such statements.

"If he has the guts, ask him to take me on personally and I will sue him till he becomes a bankrupt," said Kayveas.

According to Murugiah, he is in the good books of both Najib and Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and is confident that the Registrar of Societies (ROS) will rule in his favour in deciding the lawful president of the party.

Sources stated that the ROS report is with Hishammuddin (right) who will make a decision on the fate of the two rivals, each of whom claims to be the president.

The on-going feud between Kayveas and Murugiah, who is also deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department, started in May over a leadership tussle..

Murugiah and six PPP grasssroots leaders were sacked by the supreme council.

The six are Selayang division chief K Tanggaraju, PPP Youth exco chief S Kanesan, S Saravanan, Jeyaratnam Manium and former supreme council members R Rajandran and NA Shanmuganathan.

They are all close allies of Murugiah, who was a PPP supreme council member and the former national Youth leader.