PETALING JAYA, April 1 — Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) remains adamant in contesting in five parliamentary seats and 12 state seats in GE14, according to central committee member S. Arutchelvan.

He said that Pakatan Harapan is being unreasonable by insisting that PSM contest only one seat in GE14.

"What they offered us to stand in one seat only and back down on all the rest is not reasonable at all,” he told Malay Mail when met after the "Dialogue with Chin Kwai Leong: from farmer activist to politics.”

Arutchelvan said the Opposition party should at least back down from Sungai Siput as PSM has a better candidate, which is currently held by its incumbent Dr D. Michael Jeyakumar.

"That should be the spirit… let us contest in Sungai Siput to win the seat and we will make sure that our one vote goes to Pakatan Harapan.

In recent talks between PKR and PSM, the former had said Dr Jeyakumar could contest the Sungai Siput seat under a PKR ticket, but would have to stand down from all potential three-cornered fights involving the opposition coalition.

PSM had on February 10 announced its candidates will contest five parliament seats — Batu Gajah, Hulu Langat, Cameron Highlands, Subang, Sungai Siput.

"If they (Pakatan Harapan) don’t allow us to contest stand under their logo, and they place another person in the same seat, the votes will split and BN will win,” said Arutchelvan, referring to the ruling-party Barisan Nasional.

"If they recognise our work, then they should allow us to contest under our ticket and back down.

"We have gone through this whole process in the last general elections. We already told them it is too last minute and it is unreasonable.”

Meanwhile, farmer-turned-politician Chin expressed his desire to run for a Perak state seat as the voice representing farmers and livestock breeders in the Perak State Legislative Assembly.

Representing the Menglembu state seat in the upcoming GE14, Chin said he aspires to change policies that involves the livelihood of farmers and livestock breeders in order to give them the means to conduct their businesses.

"I had tried to approach politicians to have our issues heard, but it remained futile. Therefore I decided to enter politics in order to be able to represent the group in the state assembly and change the necessary policies and laws that do not cater to the interest of farmers and livestock breeders.

"One of the policies that I would like to implement is that each farmer would get five acre of land that cannot be bought over or have a change in land ownership,” he said at the dialogue.

Chin said there are no more farmers left and only 0.01 per cent livestock breeders in the Menglembu area, which has about 30,000 voters, as it has become more urbanised after many farmers were previously chased away from the area.

Acknowledging the state seat is a DAP stronghold, Chin said he has gone on the ground to represent the plight of farmers and livestock breeders for many years and will give his best to have the grassroots voice heard if he is elected.