ROS 'lying' about Pakatan registration

Pakatan Rakyat has refuted claims by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) that the coalition has not made any fresh application to register their coalition.

In fact, they have been hounding the department since March, said PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution.

Saifuddin (left) said after much-publicised exit of Pakatan’s pro-tem chairperson Zaid Ibrahim in November last year, the committee had in an emergency general meeting (EGM) elected PAS central committee member Kamaruddin Jaafar to helm the post in March.

Saifuddin was referring to a report published by New Straits Times quoting ROS director-general Abdul Rahman Othman, that Pakatan has made no new effort to register the coalition.

“We regret this statement, because during the EGM, we had named a new pro-tem chair and... we arranged for a meeting with the ROS chief assistant director (societies division) to submit the application with the relevant changes.

“But ROS refused to accept it, the reason being the old application is still awaiting a decision on Zaid’s application, although according to PKR’s constitution, Zaid is no longer a member,” said Saifuddin, who is also the Machang MP.

He also said that since March, they have been in touch with the RoS every three to four weeks to ascertain the status of the application but to no avail.

“This is not just strange but rather unexpected for the ROS chief to say that Pakatan is unregistered because we didn’t submit a fresh application... this just means Abdul Rahman Othman doesn’t know what is happening in his department,” Saifuddin told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

According to Saifuddin, when Kamaruddin met with the ROS representative he had with him six sets of the necessary applications, copies of the party’s constitution and coloured copies of the coalition’s logo as well as the application fees, among others.

“So now I pass the ball back to their court. I want Abdul Rahman to explain why our application was not accepted in March,” he added.

Despite this, Saifuddin said the pro-tem committee will continue to pursue the matter and if there is still no favourable response the Pakatan leadership will decide on their next course of action.

Double standards

DAP’s Anthony Loke, who the secretary-general of the pro-tem committee, added that no letter rejecting their earlier application had been sent to the secretariat.

“In any association, not just one individual is its representative. Pakatan is not Zaid Ibrahim and Zaid Ibrahim is not Pakatan.

“Zaid left PKR, but that’s his problem, that doesn’t mean Pakatan Rakyat is immediately defunct,” said Loke, calling it a clear case of double-standards and political trickery on the part of the ROS and it’s governing body, the Home Ministry.

“For two years we have been trying to register, but the registration of Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air (Kita) which was formed by Zaid after he left PKR, was approved in two weeks,” he lashed out.

“The ROS doesn’t want to recognise Pakatan Rakyat as a political entity because they fear it will challenge Barisan Nasional... because in the next general election, if we are not given the green light by then, we will not be able to place a Pakatan Rakyat candidate,” said Loke (left).

Hatta Ramli, who was also present, said that ROS must be “professional”, adding if parties such as Kita is given immediate recognition, it should be no different for the rest.

“I understand that the Human Rights Party (HRP) is also attempting to register... if the persons who hold positions in the party are free to associate there should no problems,” said Hatta, reminding the authorities not to play politics.