“MUDA’s pro tem committee has just been informed via an email from the Registrar of Societies (RoS) that the home minister has rejected MUDA’s appeal to be registered,” said its vice-president Lim Wei Jiet in a statement.

“No reason was given.”

Earlier this year, RoS rejected MUDA’s application for registration but did not provide specific reasons.

The party then filed its appeal to the home minister in February, but the minister Hamzah Zainudin has not responded until today.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court had set earlier today to hear a suit by MUDA, the party led by Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, to compel the ministry to make a decision on its application to be registered as a political party.

Lim, who is a MUDA lawyer, said a few minutes before the judicial review started at noon, federal counsel informed the court that the home minister had already decided on MUDA’s appeal.

Lim said that as MUDA’s pro tem committee was not informed about this development, the hearing was postponed to next Wednesday – before MUDA received the e-mail from RoS.

Stating that MUDA was “very upset” with Hamzah’s decision, Lim said the pro tem committee had given its full cooperation to Hamzah and RoS, discussed issues relating to its constitution and registration documents, and had made all the required amendments.

Noting that MUDA had initially filed for registration on Sept 17 last year and filed an appeal to Hamzah on Feb 4, Lim called the delay in reaching today’s decision “extremely unreasonable”.

“The timing of the home minister’s decision shows that the authorities only want to delay MUDA’s registration for as long as possible,” said Lim.

“MUDA will challenge the home minister’s decision in court… The dirty tactics of this Perikatan Nasional (minority) government will not dampen our spirits to continue becoming a check and balance to the failures and shallowness of today’s leadership.”