DATUK Zuraida Kamaruddin has filed a judicial review leave application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in a bid to be officially recognised as Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) president.
Recall that a leadership tussle had broken out between party president Datuk Larry Sng and Zuraida in October last year over the president’s post.
The Julau MP had maintained that he was still the president despite another faction within the party saying that it was decided in the party congress in October last year that Zuraida should take over.
As a result, the former Ampang MP, alongside 10 other party supreme council members were then stripped of their membership by PBM in December last year after failing to respond to the show-cause letters issued to them.
“Sng self-declared himself president”
According to the cause papers sighted by Malaysiakini, Zuraida seeks several declarations, among them that the decision by the respondent – the Registrar of Societies (ROS) – to maintain Sng as party president is invalid and unreasonable.
She also seeks a mandamus order to compel ROS to register and acknowledge her as PBM president, to take effect from Oct 7 last year.
Through her affidavit in support dated March 22, Zuraida contended that Sng made a statement, during the party general assembly on Oct 1 last year, that he agreed that there would be a transition to appoint her as party president.
She claimed that this was due to PBM needing a “tokoh yang lebih besar” (a more influential political figure) to bring about positive changes in the party.
Zuraida further claimed that she received a letter from PBM dated Oct 15 last year whereby the party informed ROS about her appointment as party president.
However, she claimed, she received a letter from PBM on Dec 19 last year, in which Sng “self-declared” himself as party president and had suspended her party membership as well as directed her to show cause within seven days.
The applicant claimed the allegation was for questioning the Julau MP’s party presidency and confusing other party members by getting them to give a joint statement that she was the party president.
Zuraida claimed that Sng’s action was invalid as the provision used to suspend her membership was a power only capable of being wielded by the party president and that Sng was no longer the party president.
She claimed that she did not respond to the letter as she did not consider Sng’s actions as valid under the party constitution.
According to Zuraida, she had only found out about her sacking from PBM via a news report in The Star dated Dec 27.
No notice from PBM
However, she insisted that she had never, at any material time, received any notice or letter, nor was she informed of her expulsion by PBM.
Zuraida further argued that ROS never informed her or PBM that the registrar would maintain Sng as party president in the list of party committee members in its possession.
She maintained that ROS had failed to reflect her appointment as PBM president in the list of party committee members in the registrar’s records, adding that it was ROS’ failure to ascertain the contents of the letter dated Oct 15 that had led to her unconstitutional sacking.
She said that as PBM president and a member of the party’s supreme council, she could only be expelled via a vote of at least two-thirds of the delegates who attended the party general assembly, as stipulated in Article 14 of the party’s constitution.
“The failure and/or negligence of the respondent had enabled PBM to unconstitutionally expel me, which had directly caused aggravated damage to my image and political career,” Zuraida was reported as saying by Malaysiakini.
Zuraida was dismissed from PKR in 2020 due to her involvement at the infamous dinner meeting at Sheraton Hotel which had led to the fall of the first Pakatan Harapan administration in 2020.
Following the “Sheraton Move”, Zuraida joined Bersatu before leaving the party in May 2022 to join PBM. – April 11, 2023
Main pic credit: The Star
