SHAH ALAM, Sept 26 — Gerakan would be happy to welcome Senator Datuk T. Murugiah, who was sacked as People’s Progressive Party (PPP) supreme council member in May, as a member if he decides to join the Gerakan, said party vice-president A. Kohilan Pillay.
“We are more than happy to welcome a leader like Murugiah and his supporters if they are keen to join Gerakan and build up the party,” he told Bernama when contacted today.
Kohilan said this when asked to comment on Murugiah’s intention to cross over to a Barisan Nasional (BN) component party with 157,000 supporters by November, following the decision of the PPP disciplinary board expelling him in May for allegedly tarnishing the good name of the party and indulging in money politics.
The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said yesterday he was waiting for the green light from the BN leadership before making his move.
Murugiah, who declined to name the party, said: “A BN leader, whose name I cannot disclose now, told me to wait for two months for a decision on the political future of my BN Supporters Club.”
He, however, denied that he and his supporters would be joining the opposition though they had received offers from them.
Kohilan, who is also Selangor Gerakan state liaison chairman, said Murugiah and his supporters should not expect much from the party in terms of top political posts, if they were to join Gerakan.
Murugiah, in an immediate reaction, thanked Gerakan for the offer and said he had to get clearance from the BN top leadership for the offer.
“After getting the blessings from BN top leadership, I have to consult my 157,000 fellow supporters throughout the country (on the offer being made by Gerakan),” he said, adding he would keep his options open.
Murugiah said that he and his supporters would prefer joining a multiracial component party in BN, in line with the 1 Malaysia concept mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
He also said that he always had PPP close to his heart and was only disappointed with the leadership of party president, Datuk M. Kayveas. — Bernama
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