The People's Progressive Party (PPP) president M Kayveas hopes the government will allocate a post in the cabinet for the party if there is a reshuffle in the near future.

kayveas ppp pc 120308 straight He said in the event the most senior person in the party will be suggested for a cabinet position.

"We made a mistake before and my hope is that I won't make the same mistake again. This time around I will suggest a senior person to highlight serious matters as opposed to giving the task to a young person.

"A senior leader understands the party's position," Kayveas told reporters after chairing the the party's supreme council meeting at the PPP headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

As of now, the PPP has only one seat in the Senate held by Senator T Murugiah, who is a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

Before the PPP was allocated a deputy minister's post and three

senatorships, he said.

Kayveas said at the meeting today there was discussion about the party's 57th annual general meeting on June 19 that may be officiated by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

He said 3,800 of 4,200 party branches had held their meetings and to be followed by 156 party divisions now in the process of holding their meetings.

'Problem with just one person'

Kayveas said the party will also have elections in 12 divisions this month based on dissatisfaction of division members about their division heads.

The PPP will also celebrate the 57th annivesary of the party in Ipoh this year that may see the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, he said.

Meanwhile, Kayveas rejected the notion that there was still a crisis in the party and said party unity was intact.

NONE "The PPP has no problems... we have a problem with just one person," he said.

The prolonged PPP leadership crisis turned ugly since 2007 between Kayveas and Murugiah ( right ) in the bout to take the presidency up to the point of going to the justice system.

In August 2009, the Registrar of Socities (ROS) ruled that Kayveas was the legal president of the PPP and not Murugiah.

This was followed by the ruling of the Kuala Lumpur High Court in April that set aside the ruling by the Malaysian Arbitral Tribunal Establishment (Mate) that Murugiah was PPP president..

Upset with the ruling, Murugiah said he will appeal to the Court of Appeal on the High Court decision.

- Bernama