KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) confirmed today that the home minister rejected its appeal to be registered by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) as a political party, following the abrupt postponement of its court hearing earlier.
In a statement, Muda’s deputy president Lim Wei Jiet questioned the timing of the decision by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin.
“Muda is also very disappointed with the unreasonable delay in reaching this decision. Muda filed its registration almost a year ago, on September 17, 2020. The appeal to the minister was made six months ago, on February 4, 2021. Nonetheless, the decision to reject Muda’s appeal was only announced on the day of the hearing...
“The minister's ‘timing’ shows that the authorities are trying to put off Muda’s registration for as long as possible. Muda will challenge this decision in court and we hope we get justice,” he said.
The letter signed by Hamzah, as sighted by Malay Mail, was merely one-paragraph long with a header.
It read: “With the powers vested in me as the Home Minister under Section 18 of the Societies Act 1966 (Act 355), the appeal for (Malaysian United Democratic Alliance) Muda to be registered is not approved.”
The letter was dated August 11, 2021.
Muda had on September 17, 2020 applied to the RoS to be registered as a political party, and the RoS had on January 6, 2021 rejected Muda’s application.
Muda had on February 4, 2021 appealed to the home minister against RoS’s January rejection.
After months of waiting for the home minister to decide on the appeal, Muda had on April 26 filed the lawsuit that was due to be heard today.
The High Court’s hearing of former minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s Muda lawsuit against the home minister and the RoS was abruptly postponed earlier today, after the government informed the party of new developments just minutes before the scheduled 12pm court hearing.
Lim previously said the court was scheduled to hear Muda’s lawsuit via judicial review application at 12pm, where the party was seeking for the home minister to finally decide on its February 2021 appeal to be officially registered as a political party.
But before the hearing could start, the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC), which was representing the government, informed the party that the home minister had already decided on Muda’s appeal, he said.
At that time, however, Muda was not informed whether the home minister had accepted or rejected its appeal.
Following the AGC’s notification of the home minister having made a decision, the court hearing today was postponed to August 18.
When contacted by Malay Mail, Lim confirmed that Muda had only received Hamzah’s letter through an email from the RoS after the postponement of today’s court hearing. In his letter, Hamzah stated his rejection of Muda’s appeal.
*Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article contained errors which have since been rectified.
