PUTRAJAYA: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) may be deregistered if it fails to hold its annual general meeting (AGM) by the end of the year, the Registry of Societies (RoS) has warned today.
RoS director-general Surayati Ibrahim said PPBM’s constitution stipulates that the party is not allowed to delay its AGM.
“They should be able to recall how Umno was deregistered and banned in 1988 for violating its party constitution and the Societies Act,” she said during a press conference here today.
Surayati, who was responding to PPBM’s application to delay its AGM, said the party may face “serious punishments”, including deregistration, if it continues to violate its own constitution.
She also refuted the legitimacy of an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held by PPBM on Nov 2 2016.
She said this was because the EGM was only attended by 12 of PPBM’s supreme council members, according to the minutes of the meeting.
Surayati also said PPBM’s decision to amend its constitution during last year’s EGM was invalid.
“Chapter 28 of the party’s constitution stipulates that certain conditions must be met before the constitution can be amended.”
She said under PPBM’s constitution, any amendments to the party constitution must be agreed upon by no less than two-thirds of the party’s delegates during an AGM or EGM.
On a related matter, Surayati said the RoS has looked into other issues that affected PPBM’s status as a registered party.
She said this includes the setting up of PPBM’s Armada (Angkatan Bersatu Anak Muda) youth wing despite it not being mentioned in the party’s constitution.
She said RoS investigated the legality of Armada after receiving complaints from former members who were supposedly sacked by Armada chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman.
“They (the former members) felt cheated after checking PPBM’s constitution, where the term Armada does not exist.
“We have received similar complaints from 33 party members,” she said.
Surayati reiterated that the setting up of Armada and Srikandi, PPBM’s women wing, were not mentioned in the party’s constitution and could lead to the deregistration of PPBM.
She said the RoS wanted to clear the air on PPBM’s status to avoid the impression that the party is being treated unfairly.
Surayati made it clear that the people should look at PPBM’s constitution before hurling accusations against RoS,
“RoS will not hesitate to take legal action against such people,” she warned.
On another matter, Surayati declined to comment on the status of Pakatan Harapan’s application to register itself as a political party.
On DAP’s recently concluded central executive committee (CEC) re-election, she said RoS has yet to receive a report on the election results from the party.
On Thursday, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad admitted that PPBM's failure to hold AGMs at the division, branch and central levels was due to its poor organisational structure.
Dr Mahathir, who is PPBM chairman, had said the party's branches and divisions failed to hold meetings despite allegedly having many members.
He had revealed that the branches were the most disorganised section of the party, which was founded in September last year.