by AZALEA AZUAR / pic by ARIF KARTONO

THE status of Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) is still up in the air as the application for the new party to be officially registered that was made over two months ago is yet to be approved by the Registrar of Societies (RoS).

Pejuang secretary general Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah (picture) said approval for the party’s registration seems to take longer than applications by other parties that received RoS’ approval within a shorter period of time.

“The situation of Pejuang’s application is very different from that of two other parties which are Parti Makkal Sakti Malaysia, which took within two weeks, while Perikatan Nasional (PN) was approved immediately in a very dubious process,” he said in a press release.

Pejuang’s committee has also demanded Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin and RoS DG Masyati Abang Ibrahim to make an immediate and clear decision so that the party’s registration could be approved according to the principles of law.

A complete written application and online registration of Pejuang were submitted in person to Masyati for approval on Aug 19.

On Sept 15, Pejuang’s sponsoring committee also contacted Masyati’s special officer via telephone to request for an appointment between Hamzah and Masyati.

On Sept 28, a face-to-face meeting regarding Pejuang’s application status was held between Hamzah and Masyati.

Amiruddin said the RoS had then proposed several amendments to the constitution of Pejuang.

He said the party abided and submitted the amendments to the RoS through the DG’s office at the front counter at Level 9 on Oct 2.

He added that a written application to obtain the approval status of Pejuang’s establishment was submitted at the same location 10 days later.

On Oct 22, a letter was also sent by Hamzah to inquire about the status of Pejuang’s registration application.

Amiruddin said Pejuang also submitted a permission application to Masyati to allow the usage of the party’s emblem and to operate its website in accordance with Section 6 (2) of the Societies Act 1966 (Act 335), which empowers the RoS to grant permission pending approval. He said unfortunately, none of the seven applications have received any reply from the Home Affairs Ministry or the RoS.

“Three months without any written answer is unreasonable and this indirectly shows that the RoS is now back to being a politically-motivated ‘government tool’ that raises suspicion among the people,” said Amiruddin.