ROS had earlier issued a deregistration notice that rendered PPBM to be an illegal party in the run up to GE14. Lawyer Rosli Dahlan acting for the Secretary of PPBM filed a judicial review application but failed the first time before Judge Kamaludin Said.
Rosli filed a second judicial review before Azizah who agreed that there was basis to say that ROS had acted in bad faith dictated by Umno’s Deputy President Zahid Hamidi who was the Home Minister then and who had a conflict of interest. Azizah had also granted a stay order against the deregistration notice thus allowing PPBM to contest in GE14 as a legal political party.
In the Consent Order, ROS acknowledged that PPBM had always been in compliance with all directives and had provided all the necessary information by its letters dated 27th, 29th and 30th March 2018 and there was no basis to deregister it. ROS also issued a cancellation order dated May 5, 2018 revoking the deregistration notice.
Speaking to reporters later, Rosli said that ROS had set a very good example to all government agencies by admitting its mistake. He added that government servants should be impartial when taking action against certain parties.
“If civil servants acted in good faith and followed the law when making an order or decision, their administration would not be affected by any change in government.
“We hope to see them behaving fairly under the new government,” he said.
Rosli also commended the Home Ministry and the AG’s chambers for the courage to do the right thing to correct past mistakes “government agencies must act according to the Constitution and the Rule of Law. They must not be partisan and do the wrong bidding of their political masters. But let this be the past and we must move on to build a better country with strong institutional integrity.”
PH had also faced obstacles in its registration but was finally registered as a coalition on May 16.