PETALING JAYA: Suggesting that P. Waytha Moorthy ought to be solely blamed for the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman temple fracas is akin to blaming Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman for Malaysia’s loss to Vietnam in the recent Suzuki AFF Championship, says Ramkarpal Singh (pic).

The DAP man pointed out that a minister publicly calling for the resignation of a fellow minister "goes against well-established conventions of collective ministerial responsibility".

"One may agree or not with the decisions made by Waytha Moorthy in his handling of the Seafield temple issue. And he would certainly be subject to criticism from the public, but to be publicly told by a fellow minister to resign is quite another thing.

"It goes against such well-established conventions that a government is collectively responsible for its decisions," said Ramkarpal.

Earlier on Saturday (Dec 22), Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia Youth (Armada) chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who is also the Youth and Sports Minister, said he was ready to face any action if his call for the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department to resign was deemed wrong.

Ramkarpal chided Syed's call, saying that if Waytha Moorthy was to be reprimanded at all, such a reprimand ought to come from the Prime Minister, and not his fellow ministers.

"Such public outbursts between fellow ministers certainly do not inspire public confidence in government unity.

"His public demand has nothing to do with his claim that he is being silenced from voicing his views on the matter," Ramkarpal said in a statement on Saturday (Dec 22).

He urged that such "public outbursts" by ministers calling for the resignations of their colleagues to stop, as it could be "detrimental to the healthy development and growth of the new PH administration".



