KOTA KINABALU: Former Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president Datuk Liew Vui Keong is expected bring his legal battle on the legality of the current LDP leadership to the Federal Court.
Last Friday, the Court of Appeal here upheld the High Court’s verdict in dismissing his application for leave for judicial review to revoke the Registrar of Societies’ (ROS) decision on the legality of Datuk Teo Chee Kang’s status as the president of the party.
The Court of Appeal held that the letter from ROS dated January 7, 2014, issued to Teo was purely an administrative decision and not a decision per se which was not subjected to a judicial review.
Liew was represented by counsels Datuk Rakhbir Singh and Roland Cheng, naming the ROS, Datuk Teo Chee Kang and Datuk Chin Su Phin as the first, second and third respondents who were represented by Senior Federal Counsel Rahazlan Affandi Abd Rahim, counsels Datuk Rhoderic Fernandez and Alvin Leong respectively.
On February 17 this year, the High Court had dismissed with costs Liew’s application for leave and ordered him to pay RM2,000 to each of the respondents.
In a statement yesterday, Liew indicated his intention to contest the recent Court of Appeal’s decision to the Federal Court.
“As I have said, many questions of law have arisen following the Court of Appeal’s ruling that “the ROS’s letter of Jan 7, 2014 is not a decision but rather an administrative decision that requires no judicial review by the court”.
The former deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department contended that many in the legal fraternity felt that this is too wide and has given not only the ROS, but government agencies, extensive power in their decision making.
Based on this decision, Liew said that ROS could take side on a political dispute and appoint a person, without going through a due democratic process, to be the head of a political party.
“Their (ROS) investigation cannot be opened up for scrutiny because the Court of Appeal seems to give a suggestion that since it is purely administrative and carried out internally, that is not a “decision per se”. Hence, not subject to review.
“Even if we accept it as “an administrative decision”, where is the remedy for anyone who is not happy with such “administrative decision,” he asked.
According to him, the Court of Appeal’s decision left many questions unanswered and many were, in fact, questioning the decision made as been unfair and unjust.
“It also leaves a big question mark if Teo’s alleged ascendancy to LDP’s top post, based on a letter from ROS, is valid in law or not because if ROS has not made a “decision” as what the Court of Appeal ruled, then who is the lawful president of LDP?”
“It therefore leaves me with no room but to seek justice in the Federal Court. I know it is hard and a difficult journey, but for the sake of justice, I am willing to bite the bullet, and go through all the way,” he added.
Commenting on the recent decision by the current LDP supreme council to suspend six party’s divisions aligned to his factions, Liew described it as a futile exercise beacuse none of the divisions were subject to Teo’s jurisdiction.
“We therefore do not have to obey the order. Just ignore it, and carry on with our activities and programs for the people.
“The fact is clear that on March 29, 2014, a party election was held in Sandakan with the presence of more than 400 delegates and observers from 17 of the 31 LDP divisions. During the party election, a new line-up was elected by the delegates,” he added.