Former PRM (Parti Rakyat Malaysia) president Rohana Ariffin is dismayed over the appointment of former Umno and PKR member Ezam Mohd Noor as deputy president of PRM.
“I think this is tragic. PRM was revived after the original merger with PKR because there were those of us who wanted to preserve the legacy of a left-wing party of the people.
“But over the years we have experienced an influx of members from other parties. Usually, they are disgruntled and looking for a platform for them to contest the elections, but they have no regard for the original party’s values and traditions,” she told Malaysiakini.
PRM was originally formed in 1955 and gained prominence as part of the Socialist Front coalition with the Labour Party of Malaysia. However, it was decimated by repeated ISA detentions in the 1960s and 1970s, eventually merging with Parti Keadilan Nasional in 2002 to form today’s PKR.
Rohana was part of a group of dissidents who opposed the merger and revived the party through a legal challenge.
“From 2010-2015, I was president of the party, but eventually I had family commitments overseas and left it behind to (current president) Arrifin Salimon and (current secretary-general) Koh Swee Yong.
“Unfortunately, we were joined by very disgruntled people in waves. Some were ex-DAP, some were ex-Gerakan, and some were ex-PKR.
“They came in in big numbers and outnumbered the old members, eventually marginalising them,” said Rohana who is still a PRM central committee member.
Party’s roots sidelined
In that period, DAP’s former Teratai assemblyperson Janice Lee and ex-Kapar MP S Manikavasagam, a former PKR man, were among those who joined the party.
During the recent Nov 19 elections, Ezam was among PRM’s 16 candidates for Parliament. All PRM candidates lost their deposits.
“Many of the candidates who joined were very new members and there was no proper background check.
“Most recently, there was a wave of former supporters of ex-Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim. The end result is the party has shifted to the right-wing and we are seeing the demise of a left-wing party,” Rohana claimed.
She pointed to a number of incidents that indicated the party's heritage was not being respected.
“At one point, the party's youth wing wanted to revive Sekolah Rakyat and discuss about socialism, but this was rejected.
“On another occasion, the new leadership was holding a press conference at the party’s office but they took down the photos of all our veteran leftist leaders. They said they didn’t want to project a radical image,” she said.
Ezam’s appointment was decided unanimously by the party’s central committee on Dec 11 but Penang-based Rohana said her request to attend the meeting by Zoom was not heeded.
Ezam, 55, was formerly an Umno member who gained prominence as a Reformasi activist with PKR.
Eventually, he left PKR and rejoined Umno during the Najib Abdul Razak administration. He was even appointed a member of the Dewan Negara but in 2016, he left Umno for a second time.
A sceptical PSM
PSM deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan has tried to work with the current PRM leadership but he is not sure what this new development will mean.
“Ezam has been moving parties and I hope he settles down. In the current political scenario, where there is a unity government between Pakatan Harapan and BN, we are worried that the reform agenda will be compromised.
“Perikatan Nasional will be an effective right-wing opposition but what we need is a strong left or centre-left opposition to keep tabs on the government and push the common people’s agenda.
“In that scenario, it is critical for PSM to work with PRM to build that critical block. But we need to sit with PRM and work on a common people agenda because there are concerns on this,” said Arutchelvan.
He said that PRM has been able to field many candidates during elections but some have raised concerns on the quality, ideology and character of the party and its candidates. - Mkini
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