Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) was today granted leave by the High Court to challenge the decision by the Registrar of Societies to reject their application to form a political party. Judge K.C. Vohrah granted their exparte application and gave the pro-tem committee one month to file their application. The Attorney-General's Chambers, acting for the respondents, did not protest against the application.

PSM, led by former ISA detainee Dr Nasir Hashim, lodged an application for registration in April 1998. The application was rejected early last year, and so were subsequent appeals to the Home Ministry. In both cases, there were no reasons given for the rejection.

"When no reason is given for rejecting the application, it is clear that there is no reasonable reason," said S. Arutchelvan, PSM's pro-tem secretary general.

"Since 1984, only two out of 22 applications to form political parties have been granted. Obviously, the Registrar of Societies has gone beyond his administrative mandate, and into making political decisions," he added.

The successful applications were STAR of Sarawak and Malaysian Democratic Party. Other new parties such as KeADILan got their registration through a change of name from an existing but inactive party.

Arul urged the government to let the people decide whether the party is needed.

"The government should uphold Article 10 of the Constitution, which grants the right of association," he said.