Tale of two presidents: Larry Sng suspends Zuraida and seven others, calls for supreme council meeting

Datuk Larry Sng (left) and Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin.

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Larry Sng, who has insisted that he is still the President of Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) has suspended several Supreme Council members of the party with immediate effect, for undermining the interest of the party and the leadership.

In a Facebook post on Friday (Oct 28) night, Sng said this included the suspension of Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin "as an ordinary member of PBM."

Zuraida was appointed as President Designate in June this year after her departure from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.

Sng said he had taken the decision to suspend the individuals as per Clause 60 (iii) of the party’s constitution.

This included Deputy President Haniza Mohamad Talha, vice presidents Rahimah Majid, Sathiskumar Govindaraju and Muhammad Saiful Bahari Sahari; Youth chief Na’im Brundage; Women’s chief Dr Daroyah Alwi and Youth women’s chief Muniraa Abu Bakar.

Also on the list were Abdul Aziz Abdul Kadir, Zakaria Abdul Rahim, Datuk Chua Lian Chye, Datuk Roger Tan Seng Huat and Albakri Salim.

"This is in relation to their ongoing involvement in undermining the interest of the party and its leadership," he said in a Facebook post.

He added that such political manoeuvring undermined the trust of his leadership and caused much confusion among party members and the public.

"As such their positions will be suspended until a disciplinary committee is set up to look into the matter after the election," he added.

He said an urgent supreme council meeting would be called at 4pm in Sarikei, Sarawak on Oct 30, to discuss and settle the issue immediately.

"I shall be exercising the provision Clause 21 (ii) of the party constitution to allow the meeting to be held less than the required seven days notice.

"Those who have been suspended will not be invited to attend the meeting," he said.

He said the the letters or suspension have been sent to the said individuals.

This came after Sng had announced the suspension of party secretary-general Nor Hizwan Ahmad.

In early October, a news portal had reported that Zuraida had been announced as president of PBM after she received the unanimous support of delegates who attended the party’s inaugural general assembly.

PBM information chief Zakaria Abdul Hamid was reported as saying that the Selangor representative Jaafar Wahyu had proposed Zuraida, the party’s president-designate, to take over the number one position as PBM president.

However, Sng had on several occasions maintained that he was still the legitimate president of the party.

Nor Hizwan claimed that Sng was no longer holding the post and Zuraida was in fact the President.

He had shown the press screenshots of WhatsApp conversations with Sng where the Julau MP had implied that Zuraida was the president.