KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) does not plan to give up any of its seats to Pakatan Harapan in the absence of an electoral pact and has ruled out any partnership with PAS in the 14th general election.
PSM secretary-general A. Sivarajan believes that the political party will be overlapping with Pakatan in virtually all the minimum 20 federal and state seats it is eyeing, adding that they will be engaged in a multi-corner fight against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition if Pakatan does not form an electoral partnership with PSM.
“We have expressed our intention to be Pakatan friendly but if there's no intention shown on the other side...In terms of policy we can say we are more Pakatan friendly, but in terms of electoral pact, if they are also contesting that means there is no more electoral pact. If they are contesting we will also contest against them,” he told Malay Mail Online in a recent interview.
“It will depend whether we have to compromise or they have to compromise if a negotiation for electoral pact takes place. But at the moment, since there is no electoral pact, we will maintain all these seats we are standing,” he said.
While such a situation would unfortunately benefit BN as the Opposition vote is split, this is also part of the “normal democratic process” where all can contest and voters would choose based on what candidates stand for, he said.
Addressing the perception that PSM would lose out when pitted against the bigger pacts of BN and Pakatan Harapan in a multi-corner fight, Sivarajan said PSM should be able to put up a good fight, highlighting that the party is only contesting in selected seats where they are well-known to locals and where they have been doing work for a very long time.
Don't wait till last minute
PSM has a painful history in its past dealings with parties in the Opposition alliance then known as Pakatan Rakyat, experiencing backstabbing and “sabotage” when the latter sent their own candidates to contest in seats that they had agreed to let PSM stand in during the 2013 elections, he claimed.
The bad experience and policy differences led to PSM's party delegates deciding in its 2013 party congress that they will not seek to be a component party of the Opposition coalition, and that they will use their own party logo for GE14 but remain open for an electoral pact with Pakatan.
“We said we will not join the official bloc because of too many differences plus our experiences dealing with them. We will position ourselves as a Pakatan-friendly party. We decided that even though we are not part of Pakatan officially, yet we can still work together on a minimum programme, especially to bring down BN,” he said.
But despite making clear PSM's intentions since 2013 and reiterating its willingness for seat negotiations with Pakatan Harapan to ensure a one-on-one fight against BN, Sivarajan said there has been “complete silence” and no invitation from the Opposition pact for such talks.
Pakatan Harapan's actions in the past year where they brought in new parties and engaged in internal talks seem to show that they do not intend to include PSM, as PSM is not invited to talks or mentioned when the Opposition pact discusses matters, he said.
“What we feel is they are the ones leading the bigger coalition or the bigger opposition bloc which is offering an alternative to Barisan, so naturally the guy who is building the opposition bloc are the ones who should be taking the initiative to invite or be more inclusive of smaller parties.
“It should not be the smaller parties which are begging. It cannot be that way and we don't intend to do that either,” he said.
PSM had clearly told Pakatan Harapan however to not wait for the “last minute” to call it for seat negotiations as time is needed for political parties to prepare for elections, he said.
“And we know that among the Pakatan parties they are already discussing seats. Some states have already been resolved, some seats are still being discussed, so that whole thing is happening. It's fine. We have no issues with that.
“But you don't come to us at the last minute after you have resolved everything, and then you come push us to corner, saying 'we have already decided on these seats and only Pakatan will stand, please don't stand'. Don't do that,” he said.
He believed PSM will not even get “leftover seats” in such last-minute talks as Pakatan Harapan would likely ask them not to field candidates unless they use the logo of Pakatan parties, as was the case in 2008 and 2013.
No PAS-PSM pact
As for PAS which has decided to strike out on its own with Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia in a pact called Gagasan Sejahtera, Sivarajan said it was not possible for PSM to form an electoral pact with the Islamist party.
“For us, PSM, we are not forming any alliance with that particular grouping.
“I would say we are a bit too far from them, because in order to at least have an electoral pact, there must be at least some similarities in the way we think or the way we work. So I think it's a bit too far,” he said, pointing out the ideological gap between PSM as a socialist left-wing party that is committed to secular politics and the religious-based PAS that aspires for an Islamic state.
Sivarajan said that simply forming political alliances out of convenience and for the sake of a “united front” is not the right way to go about for Malaysian politics.
“Just going on a very broad concept that the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend', I think it's too broad, will not solve the people's problem. So that is why when you find that Pakatan Harapan is bringing in [Tun Dr] Mahathir [Mohamad] and all the other parties. So we find the whole thing is so diluted. You don't stand for nothing. What do you stand for?
“So we find in that situation, we cannot be playing the same game. We want to bring in a new way of politics. Now is the politics of defining your principles and policies because we find that is more important,” he said, believing that Malaysians are ready for a new approach that goes beyond merely choosing between the two alternatives of BN and Pakatan.
PAS is the only other Opposition party to have had a sizeable haul with 21 federal seats in the 13th general elections, while Pakatan Harapan members DAP and PKR won 38 and 30 respectively out of the 222 seats available. PSM won one seat then.
Six of PAS MPs have since left to join the party’s offshoot Parti Amanah Negara, which is part of Pakatan Harapan, and one reportedly defected to PKR, while the opposition pact’s latest component party, Parti Pribumi Bangsa Malaysia, has one MP formerly from Umno.
Due to political developments and by-elections, DAP and PKR currently have 36 and 28 MPs respectively in the Dewan Rakyat.
