GE15: No shortcuts, no accomplishing goals by hook or crook

 

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) recently concluded its 24th National Congress, which is the first one since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The event was held in Klang from July 15 to July 17.

It was a refreshing congress with many young people participating - displaying a promising future for socialism and giving us hope that its ideology is not outdated, but without a doubt, brewing amongst the youth.

A total of 49 candidates participated in the party’s central committee election for 10 seats, which for the first time saw eight women candidates winning.

A total of 11 out of the 16 members that were elected to the central committee by the delegates were women, which equals 68.75 percent of the group. This makes PSM the first and only political party in Malaysia whose top leadership consists of a two-thirds majority of women.

However, one issue that was very frustrating and odd for the party was the question of elections, coalition politics, and how we would broach the topic of electoral victory.

Since we lost the last election in all its seats, there has been a growing sentiment within the party that by hook or crook, PSM has to work with a coalition due to the reason that in Malaysian politics, no party is able to gain electoral victory by going solo.

When the party conducted its own internal special election discussion in February this year, members gave the leadership conditional support to only negotiate with some parties within the opposition, followed by an announcement that the party would still continue to be guided by principles even in coalition politics.

There is no doubt that the left in Malaysia was once the biggest opposition in Parliament with people like Ahmad Boestamam from Socialist Front as the opposition leader. Although, many things were drastically changed after the 1969 Emergency and post-NEP (New Economic Policy).

‘Spent force’

Today, forces of the left have been relegated to being the third force and occasionally ridiculed as the “spent force”. Politics has also changed from class-based to communal politics.

Back in January 2020, PSM underwent a soul-searching exercise to strategise our role in Malaysian politics and to set goals that would bring back the glory days of the left.

PSM chairperson Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj

Just as our chairperson Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj stated in his opening address at the congress, he does not want PSM to solely appear as a window dressing in Malaysian politics - we want to be one of the main players in Malaysian politics, as well as being capable of winning seats in elections.

The party’s own Deklarasi Trolak - made 2 years ago - is a 10-year-long plan to create that reality, similarly to the 1970s. The plan involves restructuring party machinery as well as creating effective mechanisms for building party capacity in the near future.

Climate emergency, local government elections, health care, housing and poverty eradication, are among the issues on key campaigns the party would like to participate in. PSM would preferably like to forge an understanding with the opposition parties on these issues.

Unfortunately, it seems that these kinds of issues do not inspire the political parties. Most of these issues are therefore typically taken on by CSOs (civil society organisations) and NGOs (non-governmental organisations).

We have an excellent relationship with these CSOs and NGOs and have been historically working with them surrounding these issues. In addition, the party has built many marhaen-based coalitions on sectoral issues on its own initiatives.

Many social society groups work closely with PSM, and a majority of them see us as the only hope of bringing better policies to Malaysia. On top of that, the party has a large pool of activists and they are known to actively work within various NGOs in a great number of sectors.

We have become the beacon of hope in championing their causes, including climate emergency, food security, land disputes, LGBTQIA+, migrants rights and many more.

Our principles and loyalty

It is disappointing that a lot of those topics are generally the ones that mainstream political parties refuse to address and actively choose to shy away from.

Sadly, this is because most mainstream political party strategies involve incorporating individuals from the social society movement. We have seen how activists such as R Sivarasa, Charles Santiago, A Samad Said and Maria Chin Abdullah have been incorporated.

In the past, PSM faced a similar problem. During the party’s fight for its registration - which took a whopping 10 years to achieve - we were invited as individuals to join existing opposition political parties, with offers of seats and positions.

Due to our principles, our loyalty to our party, and the undeniable ideological differences, most of us declined the offered positions. Instead, we had set a condition that we would remain PSM members with an agreement to borrow their political logo. This arrangement did not go well.

In 2004, DAP declined to lend its logo to PSM and we eventually stood under PKR under a similar arrangement. Whenever it comes to seat negotiation, the other parties would rather hijack our members into their fold than bring our party into a coalition.

While there will always be a strong public sentiment in wanting PSM to join the opposition front - which we have supported conditionally in the past - we are unable to join a coalition without proper preparations with good reason, despite desiring to see agreements made on broad policies.

In the 2008 Pakatan Harapan election manifesto, it was arguably good and progressive. But the shocker came after the election when then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the promises were made in hopes that they will not come to fruition. This was undoubtedly a serious betrayal of election promises and how voters were being treated by Harapan.

Historically speaking, the political coalition is based on the concept of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” which, evidently, has never gone smoothly.

We have observed time and time again how political parties like Barisan Alternatif, Pakatan Rakyat and Harapan all fail, simply because they did not build consensus on key issues. These parties differ strongly on topics such as the Islamic State and hudud. It is - without a doubt - no use going into a coalition when consensus on critical main issues is non-existent.

Without prioritising a clear understanding and consensus, these coalitions clearly cannot survive. Therefore, PSM is only committed to joining coalitions where some of these key issues are allowed to be discussed and resolved. But considering the current situation, there is nothing regarding policies - instead, just talks about the number of seats and who the PM candidate is.

Seeking partnerships

The biggest unity question amongst the opposition - again - would be centred around who the next PM is. On this question alone, Harapan would not be able to forge an understanding with other bigger coalitions like Warisan and Perikatan Nasional. Thus, at the moment, a BN victory, unfortunately, feels inevitable.

How much longer does the rakyat have to endure as they watch all the petty political power play unfold while they are being constantly subjected to the increases in the prices of goods, hardships and sufferings?

PSM will therefore have to work harder and seek partnerships with parties like Muda, Warisan - as well as Harapan, on the issues of common positions and minimum programs.

Without question, joining a fake coalition at the moment will not benefit the party and is not sustainable. Like it or not, we are better off building a stable coalition with clearer policies if we wish to achieve a longer and permanent stay in power.

Today, we apprehensively wait for elections with a bleak outcome. In this depressing scenario, two things which may be different are the Undi18 and the anti-hopping law recently passed in Dewan Rakyat. These two factors might be the only two good motivations for incentivising people to vote.

More notably, the voters who experienced the betrayal of political parties should also be advocating for pre-election demands so that they can play an active role in elections rather than leaving the business of politics in the hands of the few and their lackeys.

Certainly, PSM will have to look out and build the change that we want to see. We need to empower people-centric politics as well as build class collaboration amongst the ethnic groups, as we strongly believe there is more in common with the 99 percent than the one percent.

Even though this path will be a lengthy one, it is unquestionably a righteous one. It cannot be by hook or crook. - Mkini

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S ARUTCHELVAN is PSM deputy chairperson.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.