Socialist Party of Malaysia

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (Socialist Party of Malaysia, PSM), is a political party in Malaysia. PSM has been denied registration by the ruling government. The reason given by the government is that PSM is a threat to national security. Although the Court of Appeal dismissed the national security argument on 16 August 2006, which the court felt was a bad reason, it upheld another reason to deny PSM the right to be registered. This was that the party did not comply with a seven state regulation. PSM has filed an appeal against the Court of Appeal decision to the Federal Court.

History

The early years (1990-1998)

The last socialist party to exist in Malaysia, Malaysian Peoples Socialist Party (PSRM) stripped the word "socialist" from their name and constitution in 1990. The party in recent years had merged with Parti Keadilan Rakyat. The decision of PSRM to abandon socialism from its constitution perhaps left Malaysia for the first time without a left based political party.

Since 1991, several grassroots based organizations working with the urban and rural poor in Malaysia started to form an alliance. In 1994, they staged a massive demonstration at the heart of Kuala Lumpur surprising many people. The last major demonstration called by the working class in the capital city goes way back two decades ago.

In 1995, these grassroots organization who already had their strong bases among the plantation workers, urban poor slums and industrial workers formed an alliance and together the idea to form a political party to represent the aspirations of the poor and the marginalized was mooted. The election results in 1995 hastened this process and after years of discussion and consolidations, it was finally agreed that a party with socialist ideology was imminent to liberate the masses from their current conditions.

With this in mind, the groups took more than two and the half years to draft the party's constitution, which was ready by the end of 1997. After further consultation with the masses, on May 1st 1998, the new party known as the Socialist party Of Malaysia was officially put for registration.

Legal Status

The Malaysian State has refused to recognize PSM. The ruling party has rejected the party's application to register as a political party citing that PSM is a threat to national Security. While PSM activities have been transparent and open confrontation, the ruling party seems uneasy to see a socialist party in its backyard.

The right to form a political party is a constitutional right and PSM became the first party in Malaysia's history to take the ruling party and the Home Minister to court for abusing their power. Below is the time line of PSM's registration process.

1999 General Elections

In 1999, the party decided to contest in the general election. Since PSM was not registered, it had to contest under some other party's logo. In 1999, the candidates contested with Democratic Action Party's (DAP) logo. The main intention was to popularize the party. The party lost in its seat but managed to reduce the opponent's majority by 10,000 votes.

2004 General Elections

In the year 2004, PSM had to contest on the logo of another party, Parti Keadilan Nasional (now known as Parti Keadilan Rakyat).

2008 General Elections

3 PSM members contested in the 2008 general elections under the Keadilan ticket, and one as an independent. Two of these candidates won PSM's first ever political seats. Candidate Dr Jeyaumar Devaraj won PSM's first ever federal parliamentary seat and candidate Nasir Hashim won a seat in the Selangor state legislative assembly. Their election campaigning also resulted in an increase in membership in Semenyih.

Ideology

According to their official website, PSM is only eight years old but has working experience with the masses that goes back more than fifteen years. Over the years, the party's three main front organizations had established more than a hundred sub-fronts. PSM strength lies in its work done with the masses especially the plantation workers, the urban poor, the Industrial workers and the peasants. The party also collaborates with the progressive student movement. PSM remain today perhaps the only party in Malaysia taking a class line and highlighting the plight of the poor from low wages, forceful eviction to retrenchment. The party has also made some inroads into organizing union in the last two year and have working committees in around 50 factories throughout the country. While civil and political protest are carried out by the main stream political parties, PSM continues to support and organize pickets, strike and demonstration among the working class.

Seven-Point Manifesto

PSM has a seven-point manifesto which lists the following policies :

1. Workers’ rights will be safeguarded (e.g. minimum wage, automatic recognition of workers unions and 90 day maternal leave)
2. The eradication of neo-liberal policies (e.g. halting privatisation of health care, education and other public necessities)
3. Stopping the Free Trade Agreement with western imperial powers
4. Provide comfortable and humane housing for both rural and urban inhabitants
5. Stopping racial and religious politics to foster greater unity among the people
6. Eradication of corruption and abuse of power
7. Stopping the destruction of the environment

Recent Issues

Environment

On 1st April 2008, accompanied by Friends of Kota Damansara (FOKD) and Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), PSM's Nasir Hashim led the delegation in talks with Selangor’s newly appointed State Exco for Environmental Affairs, Elizabeth Wong to gazette the Kota Damansara forest.

Healthcare, FTA and Patent Law

In April 2008, PSM MP Dr Kumar Devaraj, spoke out against the FTA and patents.

Hypermarkets

On 15 April 2008, 100 residents led by PSM committee member and state representative, Nashir Hashim, protested against the construction of a Carrefour hypermarket.

See also

• List of political parties in Malaysia
• Politics of Malaysia

External links

• Parti Sosialis Malaysia - Official Website
• Red Ink - Socialist Youth blog