Pejuang takes RoS to court over party’s registration after four-month delay

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) has filed for judicial review to compel the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to make a decision regarding the party’s registration status since its formation four months ago.

The judicial review application filed at the High Court today named pro-tem secretary-general Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah as the plaintiff of the case acting on Pejuang’s behalf, while the RoS and its director-general are named as respondents in the suit.

In the application, Amiruddin demanded that the party be registered within seven days after a court ruling, based on Section 7 of the Societies Act.

He disclosed that Pejuang’s application to be officially registered was made at the time of its formation in August but there has been no further response from RoS after several amendments were asked to be made to the party’s constitution.

Amiruddin, in his affidavit in support of the application sighted by Malay Mail, also referred to the registrations of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition and Parti Makkal Sakti which were alleged to have been done hastily unlike that of Pejuang.

“I am claiming that the second respondent (RoS) would seem to deliberately delay Pejuang’s registration by providing various unreasonable excuses,” he said.

It said the application was Amiruddin further said RoS’s failure to make a decision was also against Article 10(1)(c) of the Federal Constitution where all citizens have the right to form associations.

It added that Pejuang wants a declaration that the respondents’ action or omission to register the party in a ‘timely manner’ was unreasonable and done in bad faith.

“Further, the failure to register Pejuang is against the principles of legitimate expectation and the respondents as statutory bodies should perform their statutory duties fairly.

“The decision taken by the respondents to not approve the party’s registration is mala fide in nature considering the political instability of the PN government that may call for a general election at any time,” Amiruddin said.

RoS is a unit under the Home Ministry and the minister is Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, who is also Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia secretary-general.

In October, Amiruddin said the party was snubbed seven times by RoS after submitting their application in August.

Pejuang is an off shoot of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and was co-founded by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his supporters after they were sacked from the party in May due to a dispute with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his PN government.