Failure to register Pejuang, Muda is an assault on democracy

 

Some time in 2016, the Muhyiddin Yassin-led PPBM received an approval letter in less than 30 days after submitting its application to the Registrar of Societies.

This prompted Muhyiddin, who was fighting Umno after being sacked by Najib Razak, then prime minister, to say some nice things about the relatively prompt RoS action.

“We would like to thank RoS and the home minister for giving the approval within 30 days as promised,” he had said.

The RoS client’s charter sets five days for approval if all the papers are in order but I suppose with powerful personalities like Muhyiddin and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad behind the formation of PPBM, more time was needed to scrutinise the application.

The public was watching closely as it was a highly political decision with PPBM being a breakaway party from Umno, formed to lead the opposition in the 14th general election.

Last week, many Malaysians naturally expressed their outrage on social media when the government rejected the applications of Mahathir’s Pejuang and Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman’s Muda on the same day, about five months after they submitted their application.

The nation is now under the watch of Muhyiddin, whose close advisor Hamzah Zainudin is the home minister which controls RoS. Under the current circumstances, no one will believe if both these leaders claim that the department made an independent decision and that they had no hand in it.

And surely, it was not a sheer coincidence that the RoS emailed its rejection to Pejuang at 5.50pm on Wednesday when the case management for a suit to initiate a judicial review over the delay in Pejuang’s registration was set for 9am on Thursday.

Obviously, the Perikatan Nasional government was avoiding some form of embarrassment as the High Court would have no reason to throw out Pejuang’s application. Following the email, the lawyers withdrew the application and the suit has been rendered academic.

It appears to be a highly political decision made by a “deep state” for reasons that one can only speculate in the absence of any official explanation for the non-approval.

Both parties claimed they had met all the requirements and answered all queries, and so have absolutely no idea as to why the RoS had deprived them of their rights provided in the Federal Constitution.

For some observers, it was a coincidence that the PN government carried out this assault on our democracy at the same time US President Donald Trump and his supporters were breaking into the Congress building to stop the proceedings to declare Joe Biden the winner of the US presidential election.

Muda founder Syed Saddiq, the MP for Muar, said the government was clearly fearful of the youth, many of whom are jaded by the way the country is being run and have no loyalty to politicians of the past.

He may have a point. There is a possibility that PN fears youth will flock to the party led by the one-time youngest minister who successfully fought for the automatic registration as voters of those who reach 18 years of age.

The Undi 18 scheme is set to take off in June, resulting in about five million people aged between 18 and 30 entering the electoral roll practically overnight.

With this “invasion” there is every likelihood that they will rush to become members of the multiracial Muda as it won’t be led by what the young ones call political dinosaurs.

PN has every reason to worry as even the young ones from its coalition may opt to leave for a fresh breath of political air. Maybe it is buying time to stop Muda from contesting GE15 on its own.

Syed Saddiq cautioned RoS not to be a political tool for the government to manipulate to suit its agenda.

As for Pejuang, which means warrior in English, some say that PN was uncomfortable as the word normally attracts much passion among the Malays. If indeed this is the case, it is totally unacceptable and sounds pretty childish.

The Societies Act 1966 is very clear on this, with Section 7 empowering the RoS to register a society if all papers are in order.

The RoS can reject an application if it appears that it is likely to be used for unlawful purposes or any purpose prejudicial to or incompatible with peace, welfare, security, public order, good order or morality in Malaysia.

Or, if the name under which the society is to be registered appears to mislead or be calculated to mislead members of the public, is identical to that of any other existing local society; or is, in the opinion of the registrar, undesirable.

Muda sounds very sane and apt as it aims to move away from the current old politicians to attract the young.

And it is not wrong to call a party Pejuang or warrior, as it refers to the political battle they will be fighting.

One really hopes that civil servants will perform their tasks independently and not take orders from the Cabinet. Let’s also hope that this decision was not made by a deep state in the government with little Napoleons making the call. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.