Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) leaders are demanding S Samy Vellu's resignation as works minister - or face a sacking - following last night's landslide at Gua Tempurung, Perak, along the North-South highway.

Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua and supreme council member Dr Lee Boon Chye in separate comments respectively urged Samy Vellu, a senior cabinet member, to quit because this is the second such incident at the stretch.

"Is Samy Vellu going to blame the landslide on a natural disaster again? Don't pass the buck, we don't want to listen to this sort of excuse again," Tian Chua told malaysiakini .

He said the minister should not expose highway users to risks when they are paying the concessionaire to maintain the road that it built.

Lee, meanwhile, criticised Samy and his ministry for not being serious in assessing the monitoring system installed after the first incident in 1996, to issue alerts.

"Why haven't preventive measures been taken when the highway concessionaire knows too well that landslides occur easily during the rainy season near Gua Tempurung?" he asked in a statement.

Lee, who is also Perak Keadilan deputy chief, said Samy Vellu must resign to prove that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration is an "effective, democratic and responsible" government.

"We must emulate the working culture of developed democratic countries that public safety and assets should not be put at risk due to the carelessness of a cabinet minister," he said.

He said the prime minister should invoke his powers to sack Samy Vellu to restore public confidence in the government, should the minister fail to hand in his resignation.

Temporary measures

The landslide occurred at Km302 near Gua Tempurung about 7.35pm yesterday during heavy rain. Five vehicles and a motorcycle were trapped, according to press reports today.

Two people were injured in the incident, including an 18-year-old motorcyclist who fractured his right leg.

The affected stretch of the highway has been closed. North-bound traffic has been diverted to the federal trunk road via the Tapah exit, while south-bound traffic has been diverted via the Gopeng exit.

Two of the south-bound lanes will be closed for three months for repairs to the damaged beam of a bridge, Samy said in a Bernama report after visiting the site this morning.

The two north-bound lanes will be converted for two-way traffic and will be opened at 6pm today.

In the 1996 landslide, about 10km away from the present site, a lorry attendant was killed while the driver suffered injuries.

Pressure has been mounting on Samy Vellu to step down over several infrastructural breakdowns in recent years.

In August, DAP demanded his resignation following his alleged threat to shelve repair works on a cracked flyover at the Middle Ring Road II if a graft probe was initiated.

Last November, the opposition urged him to resign following a major rockslide along the New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE).