The court hearing on Sept 3 to determine who can legally conduct fresh elections may not after all bring to a close the leadership crisis in the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE).

This is because the group led by Muhammad Fauzi Shamsuddin ( photo ) is firmly against the proposal to form a special committee to conduct fresh elections that would effectively end a dispute that has dogged the 28,000-member union.

The group is opposed to the idea of forming a six-member special committee proposed by the NUBE caretaker committee at last week's hearing before Kuala Lumpur High Court (Appellate and Special Powers Division) judge Raus Sharif.

The three parties - the caretaker committee and the two factions in the union - have been asked to revert to the court on whether they agree to the proposal. In principle, the parties have agreed on the need for fresh polls to resolve the internal dispute.

The proposed special committee is supposed to conduct the NUBE elections according to procedures based on the union's constitution, and under the supervision of the Director-General of Trade Union (DGTU).

'Proxy committee'

Contacted today, D Kalai, lawyer for Muhammad Fauzi's group, said they did not want the caretaker committee to be involved in the whole process.

"It (caretaker committee) is another proxy of J Solomon (aligned to the rival faction). He went through the backdoor of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) to form this committee, which is also being sponsored by its secretary-general G Rajasekaran," he alleged.

"We want the Oct 31, 2001 exco to conduct the fresh election because they are experienced. Any Tom, Dick and Harry cannot run the election."

The 20-member caretaker committee was elected at a special NUBE delegates conference convened by the MTUC in February.

Supposedly independent of the feuding factions, the caretaker committee was tasked with preparing for fresh polls after the court battle.

Describing the proposal to choose two representatives from each group as an "infantile suggestion", Kalai said they will ask the court to dismiss the caretaker committee's application to form the special committee.

"We want the court to direct the previous exco to conduct the election under the strict supervision of the DGTU," he said.

"I'm not agreeable to anything short of this, and (co-counsel) Zainur Zakaria is of the same opinion."

Court order?

But the opposing argument is that the term of office for the pre-crisis exco has expired.

Contacted today, Ambiga Sreenevasan, who represents the caretaker committee, said the DGTU has agreed to supervise the election but is unwilling to conduct it on legal grounds.

"The special committee is the compromise solution forwarded by the caretaker committee and if the parties disagree, we will proceed to request the court to make an order to this effect," she said.

"(But) the advantage of a consent order (with all parties in agreement) is that it is final and cannot be appealed. This is why it would good if the parties can agree on the proposal."

Ambiga said if an agreement is reached on Sept 3 when parties revert to the court with their decisions and the two names required for the special committee, that would see the end of the case.

"Otherwise, the judge may deliver judgment or may want some time to deliberate on it," she said.

R Sivarasa, lawyer for Solomon's faction, said Ambiga had distributed copies of a draft consent order to all the parties in court on Friday with the procedures for the election attached for consideration.

"We support the proposal for the special committee and on our part, we already have the two names ready," he said.

"We've been proposing elections since April 2003 as the only sensible way to resolve this dispute, but unfortunately we're still stuck at this point."

Sivarasa said the Court of Judicature Act gives ample powers for the court to direct either the DGTU or the special committee to conduct the election.