KOTA KINABALU – Warisan has failed in its bid to get Sebatik assemblyman Hassan A Gani Pg Amir to vacate his seat after the high court here struck out the party’s application to do so today.
Judge Wong Siong Tung said a pre-signed resignation letter and pledge of loyalty prior to the Sabah election in 2020 were contrary to public policy and unlawful.
“An elected member of legislature should be free to act according to the best of his or her ability and his independent judgement should not be legally constrained by obligations to either his party or to the electorate, or subject to dictates of anybody.
“Any arrangement that fetters or deprives such freedom of elected members of the legislature will be contrary to public policy and unlawful.”
He added that any action based on arrangements which could deprive such abovementioned freedom cannot be sustained by law.
An appropriate penalty for an elected member of the legislature for broken political promises is for the voters or the electorate to consider voting differently at the next opportunity, he said.
The court also ordered Warisan to pay RM5,000 in costs to Hassan.
Warisan filed the suit against Hassan in April last year after he quit the party.
The suit was filed by party secretary-general Datuk Loretto Padua Jr.
Hassan, in a statement on February 25, had cited unhappiness over Warisan’s association with Pakatan Harapan, among others, as his reason for leaving.
His exit resulted in a backlash, with Warisan urging Hassan to quit his elected position, submitting his “pre-signed” resignation letter to the state assembly and lodging a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Hassan had pre-emptively signed the letter prior to the Sabah polls in September last year. Warisan also produced a video, recorded before the election, of the rep pledging to step down from his elected position should he quit the party.
The Sebatik assemblyman took to Facebook to say he was forced to sign the document, adding that a refusal would have meant he would not have been named a Warisan candidate in the September 26 polls.
Sabah speaker Datuk Kadzim M. Yahya, however, said the pre-signed letter is ineffective. – The Vibes, June 23, 2022
