Mahathir: PH registration stymied by issues with DAP, PPBM

(FMT) – Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad says the pact’s registration as a formal coalition has hit a snag due to problems plaguing DAP and PPBM.

Mahathir, who is also PPBM chairman, said this was conveyed to PH leaders during a briefing by home ministry secretary-general Alwi Ibrahim, although they were supposed to meet Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Mahathir said they wanted the coalition to be registered as soon as possible as they needed time to prepare for the general election.

“If we are told a week or two weeks before, it is not sufficient.

“The officers we spoke to understood this, and they said the reason for the delay was because of problems with DAP and PPBM.

“If this was conveyed to us earlier, we can resolve this. We have no intention of objecting or causing problems to the government,” he said, adding that the coalition would abide by any requests by the government, as long as they were according to the law.

Mahathir said this to reporters outside the ministry grounds today. Also present were PH president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, deputy presidents Mohamad Sabu and Muhyiddin Yassin, as well as newly elected DAP chairman Tan Kok Wai.

Mahathir also voiced his disappointment at not being able to meet Zahid, who had known that all PH party presidents were coming to see him today.

“I was told that the minister is meeting the prime minister. It would seem that the meeting is a much bigger matter than the approval of PH,” he said.

DAP held a re-election recently for its central executive committee (CEC) following a dispute over the 2012 line-up.

Although the special congress has been held as per the Registrar of Societies (RoS) directive and the new line-up elected, it has not been recognised by the RoS as the party has yet to submit its report.

PPBM meanwhile has failed to conduct the necessary annual general meetings (AGMs) at both the branch and central levels with the minimum required quorum.

Mahathir said PH leaders also wanted to know if there were other issues which had hindered RoS’ approval for the coalition’s registration.

“As far as we know, there is nothing else. So we hope that we will be told earlier (if there are any other problems).

“Since the two issues (concerning the parties) have been raised, we will take action,” he added.

On whether they wanted to meet Zahid again after this, Mahathir said no. He said now that they knew the issues, they would take the necessary action.

Mahathir previously said the coalition had not received any news from the RoS on whether its application had been accepted or rejected.

DAP’s Gobind Singh Deo said then that it might take the RoS to court if it failed to respond to the opposition pact’s application to register as a political entity.

The Puchong MP said the PH parties had made the application to RoS on July 28 but had yet to hear from the agency. They wrote again on Aug 21, asking for a meeting to discuss the application.

He added that they then sent RoS a notice on Oct 25, asking for a response to the application within 14 days of receiving the letter.

PH submitted its draft constitution to the RoS on July 24 and its logo on July 28.

However, RoS instructed PH to use its full name “Pakatan Harapan” instead of just “Harapan” in its logo.

The coalition, which consists of DAP, PKR, Amanah and PPBM, amended the logo and submitted the new version to complement its earlier application.