PETALING JAYA: A lawyer has welcomed an offer by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to assist 10 Gombak voters who have filed a suit against their MP, Mohamed Azmin Ali, for deceit and breach of fiduciary duty.
“We are open to any party who wants to volunteer their assistance as it is a public interest case,” Yohendra Nadarajan told FMT.
Yohendra said he would discuss with the plaintiffs and other members of the legal team on Mahathir’s offer to be a witness.
“We appreciate his offer since the filing of the suit became public on Tuesday,” he said.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Mahathir said the suit had touched on the Sheraton Move amid the political turmoil in February and the formation of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
“I view the people’s bravery to question the credibility and integrity of an MP like Azmin as a reflection of a mature democracy.
“I am ready to offer myself as a witness in court if my statement is needed. I am ready to help,” the Langkawi MP had said.
Yohendra said case management would be held tomorrow before a Kuala Lumpur High Court deputy registrar to update them on the suit.
“All I can say is that we have served the cause papers to Azmin on Tuesday and he has 14 day to enter appearance,” he said.
The voters want a declaration that the senior minister for economy, as trustee, owes them a fiduciary duty as an elected representative.
They also want a declaration that Azmin committed the tort of deceit against them and that he had violated his constitutional oath under Article 59(1) read together with the 6th Schedule of the Federal Constitution.
In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs’ bone of contention is that Azmin made a representation that he was standing for election in 2018 to oust the then Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and to free Malaysia of corrupt officials.
They said Azmin caused the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in February and joined the PN administration, which included BN and persons Azmin himself had acknowledged were “credibly accused of corrupt practices”.
They added that Azmin, the former PKR deputy president, had pledged to abide by the PH 2018 election manifesto to address, among others, the wrongdoing of BN when it was the federal government.