Parti Sosialis Malaysia
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Socialist Party of Malaysia
Partis Sosialis Malaysia |
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| Leader | Mohd Nasir Hashim |
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| Founded | May 1, 1998 |
| Headquarters | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| Youth wing | Pemuda Sosialis |
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| Ideology | Socialism |
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| Website http://www.parti-sosialis.org/ |
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Parti Sosialis Malaysia (Socialist Party of Malaysia, PSM), is an organisation in Malaysia that is being denied registration as a political party by the Federal Government of Malaysia. 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.
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[edit] History
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 This article is part of the series: |
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Other countries · Atlas Politics Portal |
[edit] The end of PSRM (1990)
The last socialist party to exist in Malaysia, Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (PSRM), reverted their name to Parti Rakyat Malaysia in 1990 before merging with Parti Keadilan Rakyat in 2003. The decision of PSRM to stop adopting socialism as their official ideology perhaps left Malaysia for the first time without a left-based political party.
[edit] Formation of PSM (1990-1998)
In 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.
[edit] Legal Status
The Federal Government 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.
[edit] 1999 General Election
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 under a [Democratic Action Party | Democratic Action Party's] (DAP) ticket. 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.
[edit] 2004 General Election
In the year 2004, PSM had to contest on the logo of another party, Parti Keadilan Nasional (now known as Parti Keadilan Rakyat).
[edit] 2008 General Election
3 PSM members contested in the 2008 general election under the Keadilan ticket, and one as an independent. Two of these candidates won PSM's first ever political seats. Candidate Jeyakumar 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. [1]
[edit] 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.
[edit] Seven-Point Manifesto
PSM has a seven-point manifesto which lists the following policies [2]:
- Workers’ rights will be safeguarded (e.g. minimum wage, automatic recognition of workers unions and 90 day maternal leave)
- The eradication of neo-liberal policies (e.g. halting privatisation of health care, education and other public necessities)
- Stopping the Free Trade Agreement with western imperial powers
- Provide comfortable and humane housing for both rural and urban inhabitants
- Stopping racial and religious politics to foster greater unity among the people
- Eradication of corruption and abuse of power
- Stopping the destruction of the environment
[edit] Issues and Recent News
[edit] 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. [3]
[edit] Healthcare, FTA and Patent Law
In April 2008, PSM MP, Kumar Devaraj, spoke out against the FTA and patents. [4]
[edit] Carrefour Hypermarket Protest
On 15 April 2008, 100 residents led by PSM committee member and state representative, Nashir Hashim, protested against the construction of a Carrefour hypermarket. [5]
[edit] Racism and class perspectives
In January 2008, Aliran Monthly published an analysis of the Hindraf rally by PSM committee member, Kumar Devaraj, in which he wrote that class-based mobilisation should be used instead of ethnic-based mobilisation to rally the oppressed. [6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Peter Boyle, Electoral break-through to test socialists, Green Left Weekly, 29 March 2008
- ^ 2008 General Elections, Parti Sosialis Malaysia
- ^ A. Sivarajan, Stop the destruction, gazette the Kota Damansara forest, Parti Sosialis Malaysia, 2 April 2008
- ^ R. Nadeswaran and T. Fernandez Fighting for fair play, The Sun, 3 April 2008
- ^ Debbie Chan, Residents all out to stop hypermarket project, The Star, 15 April 2008
- ^ Jeyakumar Devaraj, Why the Hindraf approach is misguided, Aliran Monthly, 18 January 2008
[edit] External links
- Parti Sosialis Malaysia - Official Website
- PSM Photos on Flickr - Official Photo Gallery
- Red Ink - Socialist Youth blog
