KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 28): Ba’kelalan state assemblyman Baru Bian on Wednesday failed in his bid to strike out a lawsuit filed by PKR seeking RM10 million in damages for allegedly breaching the terms of a bond after leaving the party following his victory in the 14th general election (GE14) in 2018.
High Court judge Roslan Mat Nor dismissed the application by Baru, 68, to strike out the suit and challenge the jurisdiction of the High Court of Malaya to hear and decide PKR’s claim against him.
The court ordered the former Selangau member of Parliament to pay RM4,000 in costs to PKR.
In his application, Baru said he signed the bond in Kuching on April 25, 2018, and that his involvement with PKR was confined to Sarawak.
“The plaintiff’s (PKR) action against me, even if proven, did not arise in Peninsular Malaysia. The claim arose in Sarawak,” he said in the application.
Baru is among 16 former MPs and state assemblymen sued by PKR secretary general Datuk Dr Fuziah Salleh on behalf of the party for allegedly breaching the terms of a RM10 million bond they signed with the party.
Also named as defendants are Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar, Datuk Mansor Othman, Datuk Mohd Rashid Hasnon, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah and Datuk Seri R Santhara Kumar.
Abdul Yunus Jamhari, Datuk Azman Nasrudin, Dr Afif Bahardin, Chong Fat Full, Daroyah Alwi, Haniza Mohamed Talha, Muhammad Hilman Idham, Muhammad Jailani Khamis, Robert Ling Kui Ee and Zulkifli Ibrahim were also named as defendants.
In separate suits filed on Feb 19 and 27, PKR claimed that under the operative clause of the bond, each defendant agreed to pay the party RM10 million within seven days after the occurrence of events such as resigning from the party, joining another political party or becoming an independent elected representative.
The plaintiff claimed that it had appointed each defendant as a candidate to contest in GE14 and that they subsequently won several parliamentary and state seats, leading to the formation of the federal government and several state governments.
“However, on Feb 24, 2020, each defendant ceased to be a party member after being elected under the party’s banner. They also expressed support for political coalitions other than PKR,” PKR said in its statement of claim.
PKR said that on March 11, 2020, the party decided to terminate the membership of each defendant with immediate effect, and a certificate dated March 16, 2020 was issued to confirm that their memberships had been terminated and to demand that each defendant pay the RM10 million bond, but they failed to do so.
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