The People's Progressive Party has embarked on an introspection of its role and contribution within the Barisan Nasional (BN) fold and this was the main agenda of its supreme council meeting yesterday.

A possible revamp of the party is on the cards but details remain sketchy as an internal study is being done to identify possible weaknesses from within.

PPP president, M Kayveas ( photo ), said the introspection was necessary in order to narrow down the reasons as to why the party had not been considered for more seats for the 11 th general election last month.

"We are trying to find out why the BN had chosen not to consider more than two seats for the PPP," he told malaysiakini today.

"As it is, we've gone through three general elections without a single seat and members strongly feel that the party is continuously being sidelined within the BN."

If it was a question of having a bigger piece of the political cake, he said, then it's time the PPP looked at other means of getting due recognition for being a multi-racial BN component party.

Noting that the party's role was as an 'opposition within the BN', Kayveas, who is Taiping MP, described the progress made within the last 11 years as "pretty impressive".

"Based on that, all the state chairpersons and supreme council members felt that our seat allocation could have been done better.

"We wanted at least two parliamentary and four state seats, which would have been a fair start."

Indian quota

While the PPP won the Taiping three-cornered fight with a majority of over 2,000 votes, it lost the Pasir Bedamar state seat to the DAP by more than 3,000 votes.

Kayveas said he was under a lot of pressure prior to the election.

"I was told that some BN leaders wanted the PPP to get out of the BN, but I brushed it all aside because I'm steadfast and sure about where I stand. Loyalty is very important to me," he explained.

"I feel we should keep our dissatisfaction among ourselves and look for ways on how to work from within the BN."

He said that talk was rife about certain quarters offering to sponsor the PPP to get out of the BN since the former's interests were being neglected.

"But as president, I can't make such a drastic decision. The party's founding fathers had decided to join the Alliance, and subsequently the BN. I feel that we should stick to the BN, with or without seats."

However, party insiders were clearly unhappy. They placed the blame for the unfair seat allocation exercise on the respective menteri besars and chief ministers.

"They did not recommend seats for the PPP. That much is obvious," said a PPP state chairperson who declined to be named.

"Without their recommendations, it is impossible for the BN chairperson to consider allocating anything for our party."

Furthermore, he said, the BN formula was based on race whereas the PPP moved on a multi-racial platform.

"Why should we fall under the Indian quota like the MIC, for example, if that is how the BN works out seat allocation? This is the difficulty we are faced with in trying to fit within the BN," he said.

Three expelled

A PPP supreme council member, when contacted, echoed similar views. He said the BN was merely paying lip service to the Bangsa Malaysia tagline.

"The talk about kongsi kuasa (power-sharing) is also superficial. Where is the real example?"

Yesterday's PPP supreme council meeting, the first after the March 21 general election, also decided unanimously to sack three leaders for allegedly questioning the national and Johor BN leadership openly.

The three are Johor PPP chairperson, K Nathan, Kulai division chief, K Gopalakrishnan, and Perak deputy chairperson, A Ayathurai.

Describing the three as "good workers who have been good to the party", Kayveas said he was "very sad" that the party had to expel them.

"They have my sympathy. But as leaders, they knew the consequences of going against the coalition.

"Our decision is merely meting out the punishment that has been decided by the BN."

The three have also been barred from re-joining the BN through any of its component parties, he added.