Dr M hits a stone wall, laments Muhyiddin taking a page from Najib

 

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad lamented that Putrajaya's emergency powers mean there is no recourse for his Parti Pejuang Tanah Air's (Pejuang) registration, which the Registrar of Societies (ROS) is refusing to approve.

"With the emergency in force, the power of the prime minister is above challenge. There is no more democracy.

"So I suppose Pejuang cannot do anything to get the Registrar to register the party," he said in a statement.

Mahathir pointed out that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Bersatu president, was angry when then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak did the same thing to him in 2018.

However, Mahathir said Muhyiddin is now doing the exact same thing.

"The Bersatu leaders in the government must know that a day before the 14th general election, Bersatu's registration was cancelled.

"The prime minister who at that time was the Bersatu president was very angry. He thought it was unfair and a dirty trick for Najib's government to do that.

"But now that he is the government with emergency powers, he is doing the same thing that he condemned Najib for," Mahathir said in a statement.

Mahathir said the ROS had confirmed that Pejuang's registration papers were in order but had insisted that approval must come from Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin, even though the procedure does not require it.

In the end, he said Pejuang had to take the matter to court.

"The evening before the court was to make a decision, ROS replied that our application was rejected.

"The reason given was that the online version of our constitution was not proper? But we had given the hard copy," he said.

Mahathir sarcastically asked if preventing Pejuang's registration was also a necessary move to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Can it be that the approval of our party would worsen the pandemic or is the government so busy with managing the Covid-19 that it has no time for anything else?

"Or is it the government's way of ensuring elections without opponents," he said.

The emergency proclamation, which took effect on Jan 11, saw the suspension of Parliament and Federal Constitution.

Muhyiddin said the emergency was necessary to fight the pandemic, but critics accused him of using the emergency to cling on to power after losing his majority in the Dewan Rakyat. - Mkini