Organising secretary has no power to sack Bersatu leaders – Marzuki
Bersatu organising secretary Muhammad Suhaimi Yahya has no authority to issue termination letters to Bersatu chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other party leaders, said Penang Bersatu chairperson Marzuki Yahya.
He told Malaysiakini that the Bersatu constitution vests such power in the secretary-general whereas the organising secretary is not even recognised in the constitution.
Bersatu organising secretary Muhammad Suhaimi Yahya has no authority to issue termination letters to Bersatu chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other party leaders, said Penang Bersatu chairperson Marzuki Yahya.
He told Malaysiakini that the Bersatu constitution vests such power in the secretary-general whereas the organising secretary is not even recognised in the constitution.
“The person who issued the letters should be sacked and there is no basis to the letters’ content at all. Mahathir and others are still members,” he said.
He maintained that he is still the party’s secretary-general and matters of membership were under his jurisdiction.
Moreover, he said the termination of members should have been referred to the party’s disciplinary board and supreme council beforehand and this was not done.
For the record, Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin had declared himself the party’s acting chairperson and later removed Marzuki as secretary-general on March 18.
Mahathir claimed that Marzuki’s removal was invalid and continues to recognise him as secretary-general while Muhyiddin appointed Hamzah Zainudin as secretary-general.
Marzuki was commenting on the termination letters issued today to Mahathir, his son Mukhriz, Bersatu Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and Bersatu supreme council members Maszlee Malik and Amiruddin Hamzah.
They were sacked for allegedly sitting under the “bloc not supporting the Perikatan Nasional government” during the May 18 parliamentary sitting (above).
Meanwhile, a source close to Mahathir’s office said the sacking was not done in accordance with the party’s convention.
“The party is not following the convention of having the accused to defend themselves in front of the disciplinary board.
“In fact, there was no supreme council meeting to discuss this,” the source said.
Meanwhile, two other Bersatu supreme council members aligned to Mahathir, Tariq Ismail and Akramsyah Muammar Ubaidah Sanusi, have similarly spoken out against the sackings.
In separate statements, the duo echoed concerns of undue process as no supreme council meeting was called to decide on the matter, this on top of purported misinterpretation of the party's constitution.
Tariq insisted that the final decision to sack an individual's membership was in the hands of the supreme council upon advice based on a hearing conducted by the disciplinary board.
"If there was a secret supreme council meeting called because it involved Bersatu's chairperson (Mahathir), then this is an unexpected scenario which is not provided for under the constitution.
"In this kind of situation, by right an extraordinary general meeting should be called. This is a logical move based on universally accepted democratic principles," he said.
Akramsyah further accused Suhaimi of acting beyond his powers in signing the letters and urged for the newly-appointed chairperson of GLC Asia Aero-Technic to consider vacating his party position.
At the Bersatu Youth level, Saddiq's deputy, Mohd Aizad Roslan, insisted that the movement still recognises the Muar MP as their leader and as a Bersatu member.
Earlier, Bersatu supreme council member Wan Saiful Wan Jan argued that the five were not sacked from the party but rather their membership had been automatically nullified.
Additional reporting by Hariz Mohd.
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