PETALING JAYA, 2 Feb 2009: It will be hard for the two former Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) assemblypersons in Perak to challenge their own pre-signed, undated resignation letters, a constitutional lawyer said today.
Jamaluddin Mat Radzi, the assemblyperson for Behrang, and Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu, the assemblyperson for Changkat Jering, can deny having sent the letters all they want, but the law’s view is that they have given prior consent to the terms contained in the letter, senior lawyer Tommy Thomas told The Nut Graph.
“The law begins from the premise that as an adult, once you sign a document, even if it is undated, and you leave it in another person’s care, you have signified your consent. The law assumes you had the right to say no when asked to sign it,” Thomas said in a phone interview today.
“Pre-signed resignation letters are a common practice by political parties all over the world and have been used many times before. Even if the [assemblypersons] now deny quitting, the fact is they signed that letter.
Tommy Thomas“If they try to challenge it, the law will say, who asked you to sign it in the first place? It will also be difficult for politicians to prove that they signed it under duress,” Thomas said.
Thomas was asked to comment on the legality of the pre-signed resignation letters sent to the Perak state assembly speaker V Sivakumar yesterday.
Later the same day, Jamaluddin and Mohd Osman denied having sent the letters to Sivakumar, adding that they were not vacating their seats. Both are holding press conferences today to state their position.
Jamaluddin was the state executive councillor for the development, cooperatives, agriculture and trade committee. Mohd Osman was in charge of the tourism, human development and non-governmental organisations committee.
Both men were charged on 25 Aug 2008 for accepting bribes in relation to developing a piece of land in Seri Iskandar.
Their letters were faxed to Sivakumar after they were incommunicado for five days. PKR and state government officials said attempts to contact the duo were futile.
PKR “knew” of defection
PKR deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali confirmed that all party representatives had signed such letters before the March 2008 general election.
“The letters state that they would resign and vacate their seat if they leave the party. But I don’t know who sent the letters to the Perak speaker. Jamaluddin’s and Mohd Osman’s letters are kept with the state party leadership,” Syed Husin said in a phone interview.
He said the PKR leadership “knew” that the two men had left the party because they did not respond to attempts to reach them, and based on statements by the Umno leadership that there were Pakatan Rakyat representatives ready to cross over.
“We did try to get their side of the story. I rang them up personally, so did (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim, so did the Perak Menteri Besar and the state party chief, but they didn’t respond. Then, we knew things were going that way (that they were leaving) because of the things Umno was saying.
“If they want to fight it out in court, they can. We are ready to face a by-election,” Syed Husin said.
He also alleged that Umno had “coerced” Jamaluddin and Mohd Osman to leave PKR by promising that their corruption charges would be dropped. 
johnny says
Both Jamaluddin and Mohd.Osman have been conned by Umno. They tried to take shorter route but they ended up at a dead end. Too bad.
Antares says
Ha ha ha. Joke’s on Najib … AGAIN! Wonder how much they were bought over for? They can delay the by-elections by litigating the issue, but right now those two are worth NOTHING to BN.
AGUS says
It is a blessing in disguise for PKR to get rid of potentially corrupt and disloyal members of the state assembly who put personal gain above the trust of the rakyat who elected Jamaludin and Mohd Osman. For Umno, that is bad taste to gain power by buying over elected YBs.
RUMI says
In view of a decision of the Supreme Court, I doubt if Tommy’s statement will hold. I hope it does.
Rossim says
It is time the federal government passed a “no hopping” law with appropriate changes to the constitution. This is a time when both sides will support such changes. Does the PM dare do this in his last weeks in power? I doubt it.
Mike says
Umno/BN never changes. It’s still the same old tactics being used.
roy says
Where is Bala?
dr ahmad says
Soul-searching time for all Pakatan Rakyat component parties. Perhaps, every party must have certain ways to “filter” the good from the bad ones before they’re allowed to become/selected as election candidates.
Jeremy Lee says
Pakatan Rakyat parties should be careful in selecting their candidates. Perhaps younger candidates, due to their inexperience in receiving bribes, favours, etc., should be considered. Rather than to have experienced candidates, who have experience in “everything”.
M Sahib says
The law. It is okay if there is only one set of laws that applies to all, but here in Malaysia, you sometimes have two sets of laws. One for the BN and another for the others.
elaine says
This is a ‘common sense’ law for adults who know what responsibility and morality is regarding the decisions they make in life. The issue here is about politicians who are teenagers stuck at the identity crisis stage and are totally confused. They say both ‘yes’ and ‘no’, or’ not sure’. It is being fair to them to get them out for counseling than to lead and manage other’s people lives.
yeen says
Where is Bala? I too asked the same question. It is the same pattern of coming out, revealing something and then going off in hiding. Someone has invented this strategy, which is really a tragedy.
mimi says
Err, if that’s the trend soon we’d be required to pre-sign resignation letters for employment, directorship… practically every damn thing!.. Even signing up to blogs.. You say something “wrong”, and you’re immediately struck out.. sigh!..
wat th says
All employment or contracts are a form of pre-signed letters, no? With a promise to act or behave in a certain way. We breach the employment terms/contract, it is terminated, no?
This was a contract with the people to serve as representatives of the people under PKR. And also a contract with PKR to represent them, no? There is a breach of the contract, no? So they should be terminated!