Saturday, February 19, 2011

HRP questions ROS' double standards

The Human Rights Party (HRP) has given the authorities 14 days to approve its longstanding application to be formally registered by the Registrar of Societies (ROS). This is in view of the speedy approval for the registration of Malaysian Makkal Sakti Party (MMSP) and constitutional amendments sought by new party Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air (Kita). HRP pro-tem secretary P Uthayakumar , in his capacity as the party's lawyer, made the ultimatum in writing today to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

Uthayakumar said HRP's application should be given urgency as the party intended to contest in the 13th general election, which is widely speculated to be called soon. If the prime minister and home minister fail to fulfil the request, he said, legal action would be initiated. In the letter, Uthayakumar pointed out that MMSP was registered in just two weeks of its application, while Kita's constitutional amendments were approved in just one month.

'Legalise us'

Contacted today, Uthayakumar said Article 10 of the federal constitution on freedom of association binds the authorities to approve HRP's application. He said his application had been denied for 12 years, since the time he and his supporters attempted to set up Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim), and now HRP. HRP's application to the RoS was submitted in June 2009 and a full set of the forms were submitted in November 2010. Uthayakumar said that there has been no response since.

The authorities, he said, have refused to register the HRP by making repeated claims that its sister organisation, Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), was illegal. “So, why not give us a legal platform to operate?” asked Uthayakumar. Asked to comment on why RoS had acted swiftly in the case of MMSP and Kita, Uthayakumar said: “MMSP's case was plain and obvious. I don't want to comment on Kita”.

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/156385

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