PSM mulls joining Pakatan Rakyat - Malaysiakini

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) will be debating on whether to officially join the Pakatan Rakyat coalition at its three-day congress, which kicked off yesterday.

The Pakatan-friendly party has two seats - a state seat (Kota Damansara in Selangor) as well as a parliament seat (Sungai Siput in Perak) - which it won at the 2008 general election under the PKR banner as PSM had not yet been formally registered at the time.

The party has the distinction of finally knocking out long-time Sungai Siput representative and MIC supremo S Samy Vellu, when Dr D Jeyakumar finally emerged triumphant in his third attempt.

However, after years of trying to get its party officially recognised, which included a court battle, Malaysia's last remaining socialist party finally received the green light from the government two years ago.

At the congress, party delegates will also debate another motion which condemned Pakatan for using BN-style campaigning methods, especially in April's hotly contested Hulu Selangor by-election.

PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan (right in photo) said that while the party was critical of Pakatan's “BN-type fishing for votes”, he was quick to stress that the motion is not meant to damage Pakatan.

Arutchelvan described the motion as an honest recommendation to Pakatan so that the opposition coalition can perform better next time.

“Some of our people participated in the by-election campaign, and they feel it's important for us to criticise Pakatan on that matter,” he said.

At the April 25 by-election, Pakatan which controls the Selangor government had been accused of using the state machinery, among others, in the contest.

The PSM Nusa Jaya branch in Johor moved the 'join Pakatan' motion, while the Selangor's Subang branch submitted the other.

Arutchelvan added that of the 26 motions received by the secretariat to be debated behind closed doors at the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, these two were the most “interesting”.

PR must resist capitalism

PSM president Dr Nasir Hashim, in opening the party's first congress in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, ticked off Pakatan for being too election-oriented. He argued that this possibly contributed to their recent Hulu Selangor defeat.

“Probably Pakatan is too election-oriented until it cannot move actively and aggressively after the unprecedented good result in the 2008 general election.”

“Or this loss merely meant the rakyat remains imprisoned in our racist, religion-based and (corruption-steeped) trap,” said Nasir (right), who is also the Kota Damansara assemblyperson.

If Pakatan failed to make amends, Nasir warned that the young opposition coalition will end up consumed by capitalism, which he said has become part and parcel of the BN.

Meanwhile, a group of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) officers confiscated about 50 PSM flags which were placed at the sides of the road outside the congress hall.

However, PSM managed to retrieve all the flags from DBKL later last evening, and had them reinstalled in their original locations.