Delay in Pejuang’s registration confirms it’s a threat to PPBM, say analysts

 

The founding members of Pejuang, led by Jerlun MP Mukhriz Mahathir (second left). The party is taking the RoS to court over the delay in its approval.

PETALING JAYA: The four-month delay in Pejuang’s registration as an official political party has proven that former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his new party are still a force to be reckoned with, say political analysts.

Wong Chin Huat.

Political scientist Wong Chin Huat of the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development said there was an obvious conflict of interest in approving the registration of Pejuang, as the Registrar of Societies (RoS) was under the purview of the home affairs ministry.

“Clearly, the government still fears Mahathir, the sacked founder of PPBM, and that he will pose a strong threat with a new platform,” he told FMT.

James Chin of the University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute pointed out that Mahathir was a popular political icon, particularly among the older generation in rural areas.

He said it was not the first time a political party’s registration had been delayed, noting that Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s (PSM) application was only approved after 10 years.

James Chin.

“The registration of parties is a very political process since the final say lies with the home minister (Hamzah Zainudin), not the RoS.

“There is no given time frame and the ministry can sit on the application as long as they want to, especially if the minister is not in favour of the party.

“They know they cannot stop Mahathir from campaigning to be part of the government, so they are just putting up roadblocks,” Chin said.

However, he predicted that Pejuang would be registered soon, since the party was now planning to bring the matter to court.

“They will not be willing to go for a full trial because this just means the lawyers can question the minister, and I don’t think he (Hamzah) would want to put himself in a difficult situation like that,” he said, adding that “if the court case was set for tomorrow, they would register the party today at the very last minute.”

On Thursday, Pejuang had filed for a judicial review at the High Court, with pro-tem secretary-general Amiruddin Hamzah requesting for the party to be registered seven days after the court ruling according to Section 7 of the Societies Act 1996.

Wong, meanwhile, said he would not be surprised if Pejuang decided to register itself by taking over a dormant party instead, similar to how PKR and Amanah had been established previously.

Another analyst, former academic Azmi Hassan, said it was unlikely that the government would “stoop to the level” of engaging in delay tactics just to prevent Pejuang from participating in the next general election (GE15).

Azmi Hassan.

“I don’t see this as a good strategy since indirectly the government, or PPBM in this case, is portraying Pejuang as a formidable force and a threat to PPBM.”

He told FMT that the most probable reason for the delay could be that the RoS was still not satisfied with the amendments submitted for Pejuang’s constitution.

However, he added that the issue should not have occurred in the first place, since PPBM was also approved despite Barisan Nasional leading the government at the time.

Pejuang was first set up in August as a Malay-based party after Mahathir’s split from PPBM, a party which he had also co-founded. He had said his party’s main goal was to fight corruption.

The other founding members of Pejuang are Mahathir’s son and Jerlun MP Mukhriz, Sri Gading MP Shahruddin Md Salleh, Senator Marzuki Yahaya and Simpang Rengam MP Maszlee Malik, who has since left the party to be an independent MP.- FMT