UMNO is suing three more lawmakers for defecting to Bersatu, bringing to six the number of former party members it has hauled to court for breach of trust and contract.

Writs of summons were filed against Latiff Ahmad (Mersing), Fasiah Mohd Fakeh (Sabak Bernam) and Rosol Wahid (Hulu Terengganu) yesterday to the high courts of Johor Baru, Shah Alam and Kuala Terengganu, respectively.

The action was brought by Umno executive secretary Mohd Sumali Reduan on behalf of the party and Barisan Nasional.

Former attorney-general Apandi Ali, who represents Umno in the suit, told The Malaysian Insight the suit seeks a court declaration that the defendants committed a breach of trust and that they were unjustly enriched in the process.

“The action brought by Umno and BN is for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, legitimate expectations and breach of trust,” said Apandi.

Two weeks ago, Umno took legal action against lawmakers Mustapa Mohamed (Jeli), Hamzah Zainudin (Larut) and Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (Tanah Merah), all of whom were party MPs who had defected to Bersatu.

The six of them left Umno at the end of last year and officially joined Bersatu early this year.

Latiff was deputy health and deputy defence minister in the previous Barisan Nasional administration.

Rosol, who served Terengganu as state exco member, was the state Umno secretary.

He had said that he left Umno because it was difficult to carry out his duties as an MP without an allocation from the federal government.

Dates have not yet been set for the cases to be heard.

Constitutional experts, however, have said that such suits are likely to fail due a 30-year-old legal precedent.

Gurdial Singh Nijar cited a 1992 case where the Federal Court had ruled against PAS which had filed suit against a party member who had crossed over to Umno.

Umno now sought to do the same to its former members and would likely get the same result, Gurdial said.

“There is freedom of association as the Federal Court decided on in the Nordin (Salleh) case,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The court had ruled that party-hopping was not unlawful and that freedom of association was guaranteed under Article 10 of the constitution, in the case of the PAS government of Kelantan suing assemblyman Nordin Salleh for jumping ship.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had stated that legal action was being taken against the party members who had won their parliamentary seats on the party ticket in the last general election.

Bersatu now has 26 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, up from the 13 it won in the May 9 polls last year. – August 31, 2019.