Court deals blow to embattled Snap leader, injunction set aside

comments     Tony Thien     Published     Updated

Kuching High Court judge Richard Malanjun today set aside the ex-parte injunction granted last Friday to restrain opponents of Sarawak National Party (Snap) president James Wong Kim Min from convening the national council meeting — the party's highest decision-making body.

This is seen as a blow to Wong who is fighting off a challenge by a group of nine elected representatives, led by party deputy president Peter Tinggom, which is seeking to force the party leader and his appointed secretary-general to relinquish their posts.

The case was heard in chambers before the Sabahan judge from 11am to 2pm, without breaking for lunch.

The latest court decision means that the party's central executive committee meeting (CEC) chaired by deputy president Peter Tinggom in Wong's absence is valid and legal.

So is the CEC's decision to hold the national council meeting last Sunday, but which had to be called off because of the June 7 injunction.

But since the national council meeting had been aborted, the group would have to go back to the CEC and decide again on a new date for the national council meeting.

With Wong now back in Sarawak after six weeks in Australia where he underwent a knee surgery, this is unlikely unless the two groups are prepared to patch up their differences and agree to let next year's triennial general meeting decide on the new party line-up.

The dissident leaders claimed that the party's national council was expected to be attended by 52 of the party's 62 divisions to discuss the party's leadership crisis.

The Kuching High Court also awarded costs to the defendants.

No full disclosures

Speaking to the media, Mekanda Singh Sandhu, the legal counsel for the defendants — the group opposed to Wong's leadership — said in addition to setting aside the court injunction, the judge also ordered an inquiry be made to assess damages, if any, sustained by the defendants by the granting of the injunction.

The injunction was granted by judicial commissioner Zakaria Sam last Friday in chambers upon an ex-parte application by Wong and Justine's legal counsel Albert Tang against eight defendants, including Tinggom, and Snap vice-president and Minister of Environment and Public Health William Mawan.

The other defendants were vice-president and Assistant Minister of Tourism Peter Nyarok, vice-president and Baram member of parliament Jacob Sagan, vice-president and Tasik Biru state assemblyperson Peter Nansian, vice-president, Youth leader and Assistant Minister of Infrastructure Development and Communications Dr Jakson Tagal, vice- president and former Meluan state assemblyperson Geman Itam and Women's chief Winnie Jolly.

According to Mekanda, the judge also found the plaintiffs (Wong and Justine) in breach of Court Order 29 Rule 1 (2A) of the Rules of the High Court 1980 for not disclosing all the facts when making their ex-parte application for the injunction.

He said full disclosure of all the relevant facts on the matter would have dissuaded the judge (Zakaria Sam) to grant the injunction in the first place.

Mekanda said it was the finding of the judge that Section 18C of the Societies Act does not allow the court to question the decisions of political parties and in this case the CEC's decision to hold the national council meeting on June 9.

According to justice Malanjun, there are domestic remedies available under the Snap constitution, and one of them is to pass a motion of no confidence or to go for arbitration.

Rival leaders elated

Meanwhile, an elated William Mawan told reporters that his group would decide on their next course of action soon, but in the interim would let things cool down.

Wong's legal counsel Tang told malaysiakini he would be seeking his clients' instructions on whether to proceed with an appeal to a higher court.

Malaysiakini , however, understands from a senior CEC member William Lau that Wong and Justine may be persuaded not to make an appeal and instead will be requested to convene a CEC meeting as soon as possible "to try and resolve" the leadership crisis.



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