It is amazing that the Registrar of Societies can wield such great power over political parties. The deregistration of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) seems to be the second time that it has made illegal a Sarawak political party, the first being the Sarawak National Party (Snap).

One wonders what great knowledge and skills can be credited to an ordinary civil servant, albeit a senior one, to adjudicate a legal dispute between members of a political party? This is highly unsatisfactory.

We should change back the law to bring political disputes of a legal nature back to the courts. Of course we can improve the law by saying that no injunction is allowed and that judges should decide disputes of political parties within say three days of the matter filed before them. Any final appeal to the Federal Court if any to take place say within two weeks. There is no point shouting democracy without giving effect to it.