Muafakat Nasional name already registered by someone else
In September last year, then opposition parties PAS and Umno announced they were joining hands to form the Muafakat Nasional coalition.
About 15 months have passed since both parties inked their coalition charter which saw then Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa choking up in tears when delivering his speech.
Today (Dec 30), PAS vice president Mohd Amar Abdullah revealed that...
PAS vice president says this is why coalition hasn't been formally registered.
In September last year, then opposition parties PAS and Umno announced they were joining hands to form the Muafakat Nasional coalition.
About 15 months have passed since both parties inked their coalition charter which saw then Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa choking up in tears when delivering his speech.
Today (Dec 30), PAS vice president Mohd Amar Abdullah revealed that there has been a problem in registering the coalition with the Registrar of Societies (RoS) as the name has been registered by another party.
He said he doesn't know how that happened.
"I was made to learn that there were efforts to register (the name), but it didn't materialise as other people had used the name.
"The name is already in the RoS. I don't know how. That's what I was made to understand.
"If we want to proceed with the registration, we have to change the name," he told the media in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, earlier today.
Checks on the RoS website found there is indeed an organisation named "Muafakat Nasional", as well as several variations based on the same name such as 'Perikatan Muafakat Nasional' and 'Gabungan Muafakat Nasional'.
None of these organisations are categorised as political organisations on the website. Instead, 11 are classified as welfare organisations and one does not appear to be assigned to any category.
Mohd Amar, who is the Kelantan deputy menteri besar, said since there has been no suggestion to change names, the coalition will continue to use "Muafakat Nasional" without it being registered.
Annuar, who is now the BN secretary-general, said that it would take time to register Muafakat Nasional as the leadership had to manage pre-registration matters such as drafting the constitution and creating a logo.
Malaysiakini is contacting the RoS for their comment.
In comparison, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition comprising Bersatu and PAS, was successfully registered with the RoS using the name Parti Perikatan Nasional in August this year.
Umno had refused to officially join PN as it wanted to strengthen its cooperation with PAS via Muafakat Nasional as well as the BN coalition.
