Banned Sarawak NGO seeks justice through the courts

KUCHING - The Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspiration (Sapa), which has since been banned by the Home Minister, is seeking a judicial review to reinstate its status.

Sapa president Lina Soo, deputy president Hugh Lawrence Zehnder and assistant secretary Tambi Pilang named Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the Registrar of Societies (ROS), and the Malaysian government as respondents.

The association has 11 ordinary members, mostly pensioners and housewives.

Counsel Dominique Ng, who is representing Sapa, said the banning order was a serious matter of public interest as it struck at freedom of speech and expression, and freedom of association, the very tenets of democracy and fundamental civil liberties guaranteed in the Federal Constitution.
“Sapa has always conducted its activities within the ambit of its constitution as a legally constituted organisation, and the association has been denied the right to be heard,” he said.

The banning order was deemed, “irrational, an abuse and unreasonable exercise of discretionary power, unconstitutional and procedurally improper”.

Zahid declared Sapa on November 14 as an unlawful society pursuant to Section (5) of the Societies Act 1966 via a federal government gazette on the opinion of the minister that “Sapa is being used for purposes prejudicial to the interest of the security of Malaysia and public order”.

Sapa was a year old at the time of the banning order.