Kuala Lumpur — Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has blamed Home Affairs Minister Hamzah Zainuddin for blocking his attempt to register his new Pejuang political party.
The party had applied for registration in August last year. When there was no decision, it went to the courts with an application for a judicial review to compel the registrar to decide on its status. The application has since become academic because a decision has been made on the registration.
The de facto Pejuang chairman said the party followed all the rules but the RoS rejected the application on Wednesday (Jan 6).
“The RoS told us verbally everything was okay but that they would refer it to the minister first,” Dr Mahathir said at a press conference.
“This means an administrative process has become political. After we went to court, the RoS made a decision (to reject the application). This is definitely the minister’s decision.”
Mr Hamzah has served as Minister of Home Affairs in the Perikatan Nasional government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin since March 2020.
Dr Mahathir said the party had made multiple amendments to its constitution as advised by the RoS, only to have its registration application rejected.
He pointed out that Perikatan was not registered when it took power, adding that RoS approved the Perikatan Nasional name after only a week.
“While Pejuang is not being registered, PN was registered with ease in only seven days.
“PN acted as a government without even registration and no action was taken, but here we are trying to follow rules but to no avail,” he said.
The RoS also rejected the application for the registration of another party, this time by a former associate of Dr Mahathir and former Minister of Sports in the defunct Pakatan Harapan government, Syed Sadiqq Abdul Rahman.
Syed Sadiqq was a member of the Bersatu party which was headed by Dr Mahathir before the party pulled out of the Pakatan coalition.
Syed Sadiqq followed Dr Mahathir in the opposition, leaving Bersatu but he did not join Dr Mahathir in forming Pejuang.
He moved instead to form the Muda (youth) party. The RoS rejected Muda’s application for registration together with that of Pejuang. /TISG