KUALA LUMPUR – Muda’s bid for a judicial review into the decision by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to not register the party has been rejected by the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
Judge Mariana Yahya today ruled that Muda, a youth-led group, should first file an appeal with Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin instead of taking it to court.
Mariana delivered her decision via Zoom. On January 25, she heard arguments by Muda lawyer and former attorney-general Tommy Thomas and senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi.
On Tuesday, Hamzah had said Pejuang submitted an appeal after its application to register as a political party was rejected, but Muda had yet to do so.
Just yesterday, Muda slammed Hamzah for “making factual errors” regarding the group’s issues with the RoS.
In a statement, Muda said the group’s minimum age for registration is 18 years instead of 16, as alleged by Hamzah.
“Our constitution has been updated and checked by RoS numerous times to ensure that we meet the requirements for minimum age.
“If the minister has not been briefed properly or had missed out on the details of our registration form, Muda is an acronym for ‘Malaysian United Democratic Alliance’, which is a party for all without race or age restrictions.
“No political parties in Malaysia have set a maximum age for membership for party members.”
On January 7, Muda confirmed that its application to register the party had been rejected by RoS.
RoS did not state the reason for rejection, Muda said in a statement, adding that the group fully cooperated with the agency throughout the registration process.
On January 12, the 13 applicants (Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and 12 founding members) filed their bid for leave for a judicial review, naming RoS and the home minister as the first and second respondents respectively, to seek an order to cancel RoS’ decision to refuse to register Muda as a political outfit under Section 7 of the Societies Act 1966.
Muda is not the first group to take issue with RoS.
Last December, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Pejuang filed a judicial review against RoS over the registration of the party.
The party was seeking a mandamus order from the Kuala Lumpur High Court to either approve or reject the party’s application to register as a political party under the Societies Act 1966.
In a statement released by Pejuang pro-tem committee secretary-general Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah, the party, via the review, sought a declaration from the court that RoS and its director-general failed to respond to any application or written communication.
He added that this was unreasonable and ill-intentioned, and was meant to delay the party’s registration.
On October 30, the RoS had in a statement said Pejuang’s application was incomplete. – The Vibes, February 4, 2021
