THE People’s Progressive Party (MyPPP) leader Maglin Dennis D’Cruz today said the party will appeal the Registrar of Societies’ decision to deregister the party, following confirmation of the move by the department in a letter.

D’Cruz told The Malaysian Insight that the party now has 30 days to appeal the decision, adding he would write an official letter to the home minister asking that the move be reconsidered. 

“Yes, we received the letter via fax about 3pm today informing us about the deregistration.

“We will appeal as we have 30 days to do so, and we will write to Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. We hope he will reconsider it,” D’Cruz said.

MyPPP had been a component member of the Barisan Nasional coalition from 1973 to last year.

On May 19 last year, MyPPP formally announced it was leaving BN to move as an independent party supporting the current government.

Should the appeal to Muhyiddin fail, D’Cruz said the matter will be brought to the courts.

“A majority of MyPPP members are with us. All the division chiefs are with us, and we have all the documents needed as evidence. 

“If we fail to appeal, then we will have to go to court,” he said.

Meanwhile, M. Kayveas, who has claimed to be the rightful leader of the party, could not be reached for comment.

Kayveas had announced that he would be contesting in the Cameron Highlands by-election but later withdrew.

Kayveas had said he was backing Pakatan Harapan as he felt he had been sidelined by Barisan Nasional for too long. 

“Although I was (the party) president, I accepted it when they didn’t let me contest in 2013. But they did it again in 2018,” he said.

Kayveas is formerly Taiping MP and senator, and was deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department under Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration.

He had wanted to contest the Cameron Highlands seat last year but could not convince the BN leadership to allow him to do so, citing that the seat is always contested by MIC. – January 14, 2019.