KUALA LUMPUR – Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad took the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to task for allegedly referring to the home minister before it decided to reject the application of newly formed party Pejuang.
The former prime minister and Pejuang chairman said the party members had met with RoS numerous times over the past few months and was informed that all matters related to the application were in order.
However, during a final meeting, the RoS said it needed to discuss the application with the minister.
“According to the law, RoS has the right to make the decision on whether to reject or to register,” said Dr Mahathir.
“But even after RoS initially said things were good, they then said this matter needed to be referred to the minister.
“So now, the process of administration has become political because they have exceeded the provisions, rules, and laws," he told a press conference at the Perdana Leadership Foundation here this evening.
Dr Mahathir said the involvement of the minister in such a decision was not compulsory.
The party’s lawyer Mior Nor Haidir Suhaimi earlier said the RoS informed the party’s pro tem secretary-general Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah of the rejection at 5.50pm yesterday, saying that the application for the registration was improperly done.
After months-long delays in gaining registration, Pejuang in December filed an application for a judicial review against RoS’ delay for the application.
However, the RoS decision yesterday led to the party withdrawing the judicial review after the RoS informed it of the rejection.
Dr Mahathir said it was “clear” that the rejection was made by the minister because there were no issues during the final stages of the application.
He also said the party will appeal the decision at the soonest, “according to the rule of law”.
‘Muhyiddin was warned about Umno’
Dr Mahathir was also asked about the growing friction between his former party Bersatu and Umno in the Perikatan Nasional-led government led by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“I predicted this at the time of the formation (of PN). I told Muhyiddin “you're going to have trouble with Umno” because Umno is the bigger party and you (Bersatu) are a small party. And you depend on them. If they pull back, you are finished’,” said Dr Mahathir.
"But he (Muhyiddin) said he can handle the problem. But (now) I am going to see how he handles it.”
On the recent cancellation of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail project, Dr Mahathir said he had long thought that the project was not important.
“We can wait another 10 to 20 years because the distance for a high-speed train has to be far before we would get savings in terms of time.”
He added that since the actual distance covered 230km, the most time one could save on the HSR was around 15 minutes, adding that the costs to build the project would have amounted to RM80 billion.
“We would never get the money back.” – The Vibes, January 7, 2021
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