Kuala Lumpur: Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) questioned a letter by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) confirming that he is no longer the PPBM chairman, calling it “a one-sided opinion letter”.
In a letter to the RoS, Mahathir’s lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla said the RoS’ letter on May 5 did not seek an explanation from Mahathir as one of the parties in the dispute.
The letter had surfaced as the power struggle in PPBM heightened, validating Mahathir’s resignation and party president Muhyiddin Yassin sitting in as chairman.
Earlier, PPBM’s election committee chairman Syed Hamid Albar had said that except for incumbent Mahathir, there were no contenders for the chairman’s post in the upcoming party election.
Haniff said that Mahathir remained chairman of the party by virtue of winning the party election uncontested on April 1, which was made known through the party election committee.
He said this put to rest the issue of Mahathir’s resignation as chairman on Feb 24.
Haniff also said Muhyiddin could not assume the role of PPBM chairman as he did not contest the chairmanship.
“These factors should have been taken into account by the RoS before it decided to put out a one-sided opinion,” the letter read.
Haniff said under the Societies Act 1966, which governs societies including political parties, the registrar could call disputing parties over office bearer positions to give statements, so as to avoid the party being deregistered under Section 16 of the act.
He said Mahathir was “shocked” by the May 5 letter, as he was never called in by PPBM to discuss the apparent dispute over the chairmanship despite the letter being dated some two weeks ago.
Haniff said Mahathir therefore considered the letter invalid, adding that the matter ought to be fairly investigated by the RoS as there were two parties in the dispute over the chairmanship position.
On a related matter, Haniff said the RoS should investigate the sacking of secretary-general Marzuki Yahya without “prior negotiation” with the “rightful chairman”.
Haniff said the appointment of Hamzah Zainuddin as secretary-general, too, should be probed as it required the nod from the chairman.
He said his client had given the RoS seven days to reply to the letter, copies of which had been sent to Muhyiddin, the party deputy president and all the Supreme Council members by hand.
Dr Mahathir also shot back at those who spread an audio recording of him purportedly hitting out at PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and DAP during a PPBM meeting held just before his government collapsed last February.
“I challenge them to release the full recording of the Supreme Council meeting,” he said, adding that the clips were edited.
Mahathir said he remained loyal to those who were with him during the May 2018 general election.
“If I had really wanted to betray the people’s mandate, I could have done so when I was nominated as Perikatan Nasional’s Prime Minister.
“I rejected (the nomination). In good and bad times we are together,” he added.
Mahathir’s resignation as Prime Minister saw the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan administration, and the exit of his party PPBM out of the coalition.
PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin later went on to form the Perikatan Nasional government with support from Barisan Nasional, PAS and GPS.
