BERSATU will meet with the Registrar of Societies (RoS) on November 30 to explain why the year-old opposition party has yet to hold its first annual general meeting.

Party president Muhyiddin Yassin said Bersatu is waiting to meet director-general of RoS, Suriyati Ibrahim, to explain the AGM issue.

“We will explain to RoS in detail and seek its clarification and advice on what to do. We know that our party constitution says we must hold AGMs annually but the status of the party is still incomplete.

“It will take us some time to set up and register our branches and divisions. Only the national party is formally registered,” he said in a press conference at the Pagoh Bersatu office in Johor earlier this evening.

Stressing that Bersatu did not do anything wrong, he said he hoped RoS would treat Bersatu reasonably and fairly, as it was a rule-abiding organisation.

“We hope there won’t be a case of making things harder for us, raising some issue to make us look bad, or say something that sounds like a threat.

“Bersatu is also a legal party… but we realise we are a threat to Umno and Barisan Nasional. In politics, we can’t avoid that. But all we ask for is fair consideration.”

Suriyati reportedly said this week that Bersatu, which was registered as a political party in September last year, had violated its own constitution and the 1966 Societies Act by failing to hold its AGM within a year after its formation.

She was quoted as saying that Bersatu must resolve the matter immediately if it wants to take part in the next general election.

It was reported that Bersatu’s troubles with RoS started after eight divisions in Johor complained to RoS that the top leadership failed to comply with the constitution by failing to get all branches and divisions to hold their respective AGMs.

Muhyiddin, a former Umno deputy president, said Bersatu’s constitution was almost like Umno’s, with AGMs starting at the branch level before going to the divisional and national levels. Bersatu has yet to register a single branch.

“We are not purposely breaking the rules. Umno, when it was banned in 1988, also took two years to hold its AGM to elect its office-bearers.”

Muhyiddin said Bersatu secretary-general Dr Shahruddin Md Salleh met with RoS to explain the situation earlier this week.

He also said he hoped RoS could consider Bersatu’s application to use the name “Armada” for its Youth wing.

“The wing was registered as Pemuda (Youth) but its leader, Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, wanted to call it ‘Armada’. We started to use the new name before we registered it with RoS.

“Since RoS said we can’t do that, we have stopped using the name. We are now applying for the name change, and we hope RoS can consider it.” – November 17, 2017.