> PPP to hold emergency meet
PPP is to hold an emergency supreme council meeting tomorrow to be chaired by its deputy president Lee Heng to discuss the party's status in the Barisan Nasional.
This was revealed to Malaysiakini by PPP president M Kayveas via a SMS (short messaging system). Kayveas is currently in the United States and will only return on Dec 24.
The meeting follows Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's statement yesterday that PPP is free to leave the ruling coalition. The party does not have any parliamentary or state seats.
Contacted this evening, Lee confirmed that the emergency supreme council meeting will be held at 2pm tomorrow.
However, he was tightlipped on the agenda.
"There will be a press conference at 3pm after the meeting and everything will be revealed then," he said.
'Amend ISA or we quit'
Two weeks ago, Kayveas ruffled feathers when he warned that PPP would withdraw from BN if the government does not amend the Internal Security Act (ISA).
In a hard-hitting speech, the outspoken BN leader said the coalition must make the changes before the next polls.
"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.
"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.
However, Abdullah told reporters after chairing the Barisan Nasional supreme council meeting that the government has no intentions of amending the security law.
"We have no plans to amend (the ISA)... if that is their choice (to leave), what can we do?" said the premier - Malaysiakini.
