Malay Chamber of Commerce members sue president, sec-gen

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia (DPMM) deputy president Syed Hussein Alhabshee and 17 others have filed a suit against DPMM, its president and secretary-general to seek a court order for it to hold an extraordinary general meeting and explain the spending of a RM5 million allocation.

It was filed last Sept 13 through the legal firm of Messrs Thomas Philip at the High Court here.

They named DPMM president Rizal Faris Mohideen Abdul Kadir, secretary-general Don Nazwin Don Wahab and DPMM as the first, second and third defendants, respectively.

The plaintiffs claimed that in May 2018, Rizal Faris had spent RM5 million allocated to DPMM by the Prime Minister’s Department, but the amount was not deposited into DPMM’s account.

Instead, it was channelled into Yayasan DPMM Pulau Pinang Berhad’s account without the approval of the DPMM executive council.

They also claimed RM1 million was credited to DPMM from a company known as “Redberry” and Rizal Faris had decided to use the money for an election campaign, also without the approval of DPMM’s executive council.

On the sale of a property owned by DPMM in Bukit Damansara, here, the plaintiffs claimed that DPMM should have obtained RM11.6 million for it and RM5.6 million was supposed to have been paid to DPMM, but only RM200,000 had been deposited so far, while RM5.4 million was spent for the 14th general election with the approval of the DPMM executive council.

The plaintiffs claimed that the first defendant failed to provide a reasonable explanation on the matter despite being questioned during the executive council meeting.

They are seeking a court order for an EGM to be called and the meeting to be chaired by Syed Hussein. Members of the state DPMM should also be allowed to vote.