The Automobile Association of Malaysia (AAM) has taken a court action to quash Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s decision to revoke its registration as the governing body for motorsports in Malaysia.
The association filed its judicial review leave application, through legal firm Messrs Raja, Darryl & Loh, at the Kuala Lumpur High Court Registry on April 8, last year.
According to cause papers sighted by Malaysiakini today, Justice Mariana Yahya granted leave to AAM on May 28 last year, to proceed with its judicial review against the respondent, who is only listed as youth and sports minister in the application.
On March 23 last year, Malaysiakini reported Syed Saddiq defending the government’s move to suspend AAM from being the country’s authority on motorsports, citing the association having allegedly breached the provisions of the Sports Development Act 1997 (Act).
However, he declined to comment on the appointment of Mokhzani Mahathir to lead the Motorsports Association of Malaysia (MAM), the body set to take over AAM’s role.
Mokhzani is the second son of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
According to a supporting affidavit signed by AAM’s chairperson Tunku Mudzaffar Tunku Mustapha, 79, the association seeks to quash Syed Saddiq’s revocation contained in a letter from the minister to AAM dated Jan 7, 2019.
“On Jan 9, 2019, the applicant (AAM) received a letter dated Jan 7, 2019 from the respondent (minister) informing the applicant that the ministry of youth and sports no longer recognises the applicant as the governing FMN (National Motorsports Federation) (for FIM - Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme) in Malaysia. The applicant was not given the opportunity to be heard and no reasons given (decision to revoke),” Tunku Mudzaffar said.
He said that in response to the letter from the minister, he wrote a letter dated Jan 18, 2019 on behalf of AAM to the minister. However, he said there was no response from the minister.
“The applicant is aggrieved by the decision to revoke. I am advised by the applicant’s solicitors and verily believe that the decision to revoke is in law unconstitutional, ultra vires and contrary to the provisions of the act, procedurally unfair and improper, a breach of natural justice and the duty to act fairly and in unreasonable.
“Further, the decision to revoke was not made in good faith and was not for a proper purpose,” Tunku Mudzaffar said.
Under the law, the Latin maxim ultra vires refers to an act done beyond one’s legal authority.
He claimed that the minister’s decision to revoke amounted to procedural unfairness and impropriety as it did not contain any reasons for the revocation of AAM’s registration as a sports body.
He said that as any such decision to revoke could result in a violation of its fundamental rights under the Federal Constitution, adequate reasons should have been given by the minister.
“The inference is that the decision to revoke is, therefore, one that was arbitrary and suffers from procedural unfairness and impropriety,” he said.
Tunku Mudzaffar claimed that this is all the more so in light of the fact that the minister later told the media for the alleged ground of the decision to revoke, of which the alleged ground was not even stated in the Jan 7, 2019 letter, nor was it ever communicated to AAM.
“I am advised by my solicitors and verily believe that the failure to communicate the purported aforesaid reason is also a breach of natural justice,” he said.
He then made reference to Malaysiakini’s and online news portal Free Malaysia Today’s articles quoting the minister, published online on March 23 and March 24, 2019, respectively.
Tunku Mudzaffar also claimed that the minister’s decision to revoke has a far-reaching impact not only on AAM but also on the motorsports industry in Malaysia as a whole.
He claimed that the minister’s decision attracted both national and international attention and triggered various statements from various quarters.
Tunku Mudzaffar further claimed that the decision will cause AAM to suffer substantial loss of revenue to such an extent that it would encounter hardship to recover from, even if it actually succeeds in its legal action to quash the said decision.
“The applicant will suffer tremendous losses and the accumulated debts will remain unpaid. An opportunity to pursue a restructuring of the applicant (AAM) with investors will be stifled with the deregistration.
“Also, there will be a tremendous loss of RM2 million due to the stalled joint venture agreement with Kooperasi Polis due to deregistration. In addition, the applicant is exposed to third party claims resulting from the wrongful termination claims,” he said, adding that AAM generated RM21 million in revenue at its height.
Checks on the online cause list showed that AAM’s judicial review is listed for a hearing before Justice Mariana at 9am tomorrow.
The application is in relation to AAM’s interlocutory bid to amend part of its judicial review cause papers.
According to the Sports Commissioner’s Office, it decided to cancel AAM’s status as a sports body in late 2018 after the latter “broke the rules” by not submitting its year-end report and not amending its constitution.
However, the office only confirmed the decision to the press in March last year.
In March last year, Mokhzani was revealed as MAM’s new president.
This signalled his return to the motorsports industry since 2016, when he resigned from his long-time post as Sepang International Circuit chairperson, a few months after Mahathir formed Bersatu and intensified his criticisms against then-premier Najib Abdul Razak. - Mkini
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