THE Registrar of Society (RoS) should stick to matters of regulation and administration, such as the maintenance of records of registered civil society and political organisations, instead of taking sides in internal disputes, lawyers said.

The registrar should not interfere in matters of politics, such as whether Dr Mahathir Mohamad is Bersatu chairman, they said.

“Bersatu is a society of individual members and the power (to determine its leaders) must rest with the party alone,” civil rights lawyer Charles Hector Fernandez told The Malaysia Insight.

Such disputes are best referred to the courts and are not for the RoS or a minister to decide, he said.

“Before making its final decision, did the RoS accord Dr Mahathir the right to be heard? Did it give him the chance to make his points?

“I did not hear any report of the registrar holding a hearing or calling on Dr Mahathir to hear his side before it made a decision.”

RoS said recently Dr Mahathir is no longer Bersatu chairman, according that position to the party president Muhyiddin Yassin, who is the prime minister.

“The RoS should only be concerned about whether annual reports and accounts are submitted or whether a society has broken any laws – purely administrative matters,” said Fernandez.

“The RoS today just has too much power. It really shouldn’t have power (to make decisions) on such issues.”

He recalled that the previous Pakatan Harapan government promised but failed to amend the Societies Act. The administration wanted to remove provisions in the act that are anti-freedom of association.

Constitutional lawyer Andrew Khoo questioned whether the RoS was in possession of all the facts of the case when it appointed itself arbitrator in the Bersatu affair.

“Did the RoS process the latest information on the Bersatu party elections? RoS could only state the information that it has been provided with,” he said.

“One should remember that the RoS has held up processes before.”

RoS had delayed the registration of PH before the 2018 general election, resulting in the component parties having to contest the polls under the PKR banner.

Within weeks of PH’s electoral victory, however, the registrar delivered the elusive certificate of registration to the new prime minister, Dr Mahathir. The RoS had also dropped its investigations into Bersatu.

More recently, the RoS intervened in the Bersatu dispute over the chair, declaring that Dr Mahathir resigned the position on February 24.

Dr Mahathir contends that he remains the chairman, as the party supreme council has rejected the resignation.

He has written to the RoS to object to its one-sided decision that was taken without due hearing of his side of the story.

Dr Mahathir and Muhyiddin are locked in battle for control of the party, the outcome of which will determine whether Bersatu is allied with PH or Perikatan Nasional.

The party constitution invests the chairman with great powers, such as in the appointment of party officials.

In the inaugural party polls in March, which have since been suspended because of the coronavirus outbreak, Dr Mahathir returned unopposed as chairman. – May 25, 2020.