Best for PSM to go it alone

Rather than apply to join Pakatan Rakyat with whom it has deep ideological differences, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) ought to first build up its support base and show that it is a political group that can garner votes at the polls.

Right now only Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj (left), their only MP (Sungai Siput), is a viable electoral proposition; PSM chairperson Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim (formerly Selangor state representative Kota Damansara), secretary-general M Arutchelvam (contested in Semenyih in vain twice) and deputy president P Jayanthi (contested Jelapang twice, also in vain) are far from being electable on their own right.

Therefore, PSM wanting to join Pakatan is akin to putting the cart before the horse: it is incumbent upon them to demonstrate that their ideology of socialism commands enough support among voters such that the opposition coalition would want to include them in their fold.

But if you ask the PSM top brass about their application to join Pakatan, reputedly tendered in June last year, it is Pakatan that had wanted them to join rather than the other way round.

Whenever, in the long run-up to GE13, PSM brought up with Pakatan the question of more seats for the party to contest at the general election, they would be told to join first and negotiate later.

While the PSM story that it is Pakatan that had wanted them to ‘join first and discuss later’ is plausible, it must be remembered the more seats - actually, it was really only one seat (Jelapang) - that PSM had wanted was problematic.

So long as Pakatan component, DAP, was unyielding on the Jelapang state seat in Perak that PSM wanted for its deputy president Jayanthi to contest, there was no way that Pakatan could broker a settlement between DAP and PSM, particularly if the latter were adamant that they were only interested in contesting in seats where their proposed candidates had done constituency work.

In other words, Pakatan’s stance vis-à-vis PSM that they ‘join first and discuss later’ was an obvious negotiating tactic to get all opposition parties under one umbrella to project a united front to unseat the ruling BN, which PSM were not averse to admitting was a priority objective.

Really, Pakatan cannot be accused of showing bad faith towards PSM; that after having wanted them to join the coalition, the coalition has decided to give short shrift to the PSM application to join. 

To be sure, if PSM were to stick to their position of no-change to their clenched-fist logo and are insistent that socialist nostrums to the problems of the production and distribution of goods in a political economy are superior to social democratic ones, then it is only realistic for PSM to accept that they ought to go it alone, and not want to join Pakatan.    

Out of the loop

DAP chairperson Karpal Singh’s urging for Pakatan to allow PSM to join the opposition coalition, coming as it does after PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution had disclosed that PSM’s application to join had been deliberated and rejected by the Pakatan central leadership council only underscores the point that the DAP veteran is out of the loop where such deliberations are concerned.

Karpal (right) rarely attends Pakatan meetings and so, it is assumed, is dependent on unfailing attendee, party adviser Lim Kit Siang’s, briefings, as to what was decided at central leadership council meetings.

In the instance of PSM’s application to join to Pakatan, it must be assumed that Lim did not bring Karpal up to speed. Hence, Karpal’s groping in the dark about the whole issue of PSM’s application to join Pakatan.

Karpal is as blasé about the finer points of ideological differences between PSM and Pakatan as he is about the differences between the PAS position on syariah and hudud, that it is obligatory of Muslims to support it, and the Pakatan stance on the same issue, that it is mandatory to obtain the support of the people before it can be implemented.

But his compatriots in the Pakatan top brass can no longer be bothered about Karpal’s lack of finesse: what cannot be changed must be endured.

Suffice, it’s best for PSM to mind its own store and demonstrate to the public at large that the socialist way is the way to go.

Some time ago, the indefatigable Arutchelvam (left) spent a month in Hugo Chavez’s socialist haven of Venezuela. He gave what he saw the thumbs-up, never mind the perception of others who the Latin American caudillo was a clown.

In a democracy, people are entitled to gather their rosebuds where they may.

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TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.