PPP urged to stop clowning around - Peter Minos

Posted on July 28, 2011, Thursday
KUCHING: People’s Progressive Party (PPP)’s sudden burst of life at the seams continues to be the subject of ridicule by state BN politicians.
PBB deputy information chief Dato Peter Minos was the latest personality to poke fun at them when he described PPP as a “joker party”.
“In the United Kingdom, PPP would be called political jokers…a party good only for amusing others and making fun of itself but with nobody respecting it, much less voting it.
“And political jokers can make fun of themselves, providing good laughs to all. PPP seems unable or unwilling to see the difference and the reality. But who cares? Let PPP be the joker party that it is,” he said yesterday.
The Peninsula-based PPP, which is the only BN component party without any seat, has been receiving a lot of flak for setting up branches and recruiting members in Sarawak without seeking consent from the state BN leadership.
PPP president Datuk Seri M Kayveas, who arrived in Kuching last Friday, told reporters the following day that the party was interested to contest several seats in Sarawak, even as independents, in the 13th general election.
Kayveas, a former deputy minister who lost his Taiping seat in the 2008 general election, also officiated at PPP’s community outreach programme at Kota Sentosa, which was also the party’s first big event in the state.
PPP reportedly has over 50,000 members in the state, of which 55 percent of them are claimed to be Chinese. It has also registered 13 branches, mainly in the traditional areas of SUPP.
On PPP’s intentions to contest in Sarawak, Minos said there was no need for the party to expand to Sarawak if it could not even win a single seat in the peninsula.
“A political party that repeatedly met with total losses election after election like PPP should do itself a favour by just keeping quiet and not disturbing others. For PPP, calling itself BN, to disturb BN Sarawak is a big joke.
“If not wanted in the peninsula, why make empty noises in Sarawak? Better go and fly kite… Don’t kid yourself by wooing unwilling people of Sarawak.”
Minos also doubted PPP’s claims that it has 50,000 members in the state, adding that it could just be an exaggeration.
“We have seen parties boasting their popularity but lost all in the election. We know.”
Last Tuesday, PBB senior vice-president Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said PPP should galvanise whatever resources it had and try to win all the seats allocated to it in the peninsula.
“I can’t see the point why they are so eager to come over to Sarawak, as they can’t even win any seat in Peninsular Malaysia.”
Awang Tengah pointed out that the state already had four BN parties for the people to choose from and there was no need for anymore BN component parties from the peninsula to come over.
PBB is the backbone of the state BN and the other coalition partners are SUPP, SPDP and PRS.