> Kayveas's ultimatum
PPP president M Kayveas today warned that his party will pull out of the Barisan Nasional coalition if the Internal Security Act is not amended before the next elections.
The former deputy minister said he has to follow the wishes of the party's Youth and Wanita wings, who want the security law repealed.
"As a responsible party, I told them 'let's go halfway' and ask for the amendments of the Act so that it does not become a draconian law imposed on innocent citizens," he was quoted as saying by the Star.
According to Kayveas, if BN is serious about re-branding itself following the March 8 electoral bruising, then it should amend the ISA.
"The Barisan has to make changes before the next general elections. It is suicidal if we do not plan the next general elections.
"The problem with Barisan was its success in the past 50 years. Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose," he said while opening the Youth and Wanita party elections in Kuala Lumpur.
"The March elections has already shown what the voters are looking for good governance and multiracialism. The Barisan has conducted numerous post-mortems at all levels to gather input on what went wrong and why the voters rejected Barisan.
"The solution has always been multi-racialism but to date Barisan is still caught in its own political racial configuration – that what is being spoken is not being implemented fast enough," he added.
Act fast, act now
PPP Wanita leader Josephine Anne said that it would be too late to speak of multi-racialism by the time the next election takes place.
"The Barisan has to act now and fast track development programmes for all races and must show our sincerity and start now by uniting the parties in the Barisan.
"The Barisan must work towards a common society to regain the confidence of the rakyat, and not just offer lip service and continue to use the racial card to promote and project the different races for one’s own political standing.
"In this age and time we cannot continue to pit one race against the other and talk about unity," she added.
PPP Youth leader T Murugiah said the party did not support the use of the ISA against the ordinary citizens of Malaysia.
"The ISA was designed to handle a terrorist threat and should be used only for that purpose," he added - Malaysiakini.
