SUNGAI SIPUT NEEDS PROGRESS, NOT SOCIALISM

Even though PSM have good individuals in its party and many have been vocal for various reasons and controversies, they are simply in the wrong house.

Navinn Rajendran

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on this plan. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A….”(substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.  As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that communism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

In the wake of 2008, Malaysian Indians felt that they have been marginalized and discriminated by the ruling government hence the community took to the street to express their grouses. So many changes took place after the uproar which gave a positive impact and also negative. There was basically a huge split in political support within the Indian community which reflected on the results of PRU 2008. It was a huge shift in support that many said even a donkey would have won representing the opposition. On a personal note, I think I wouldn’t be surprised if we actually did elect animals to represent us as we don’t really care on the individual’s capabilities but just bank on the strength of a political party. I would not get into individual capabilities as the peoples representatives now but I shall highlight on a particular political party that has makes no sense to exist in the Malaysian system but it does.

Parti Socialis Malaysia has its representative Dr. Jeyakumar whom is the President of PSM as the Member of Parliament for the Sungai Siput constituency. The seat was won from DSU Samy Vellu who suddenly became unpopular during PRU 2008 due to Makkal Sakthi. The party being unable to contest on its own decides to join Pakatan Rakyat and contest on PR’s ticket. Irrespective of how they contest, what they actually represent has to be taken into consideration. Reasons why Socialism will not work is simply explained in a situation above and I believe that Socialism was embraced by the wrong type of individuals from the start. If the rich had embraced it, the ideology that is beautiful on paper would have been beautiful in reality.

Even though PSM have good individuals in its party and many have been vocal for various reasons and controversies, they are simply in the wrong house. Being good alone is not enough for a community to progress. The ideology PSM believes in will not bring in progress to the nation. Even China over time had to change their policies to embrace the evolving world. Dr. Jeyakumar has been described as a very humble man who addresses constituency issues and have been giving free medical services.

BEING GOOD ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH.

We are in need of visionary leaders whom can drive the people forward at any situation and circumstances. We don’t want leaders who only send in letters and petition but leaders who bring in development and progress. Any coalition that associates with PSM should relook this whole issue again. I would say that the coalition does not deserve the peoples’ support for collaborating with a non-progressive party. On a personal note, I feel these individuals can contribute better in other political parties and areas.

By the way, what progress has Dr. Jeyakumar brought to Sungai Siput since 2008?