Time To Vote For Socialist Candidates

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It is time to put socialism on the Malaysian political agenda.
Socialism is proving to be a successful model on the world stage as the capitalist hegemon, the US, falters and is threatening to implode with its myriad contradictions, social inequalities, and warmongering.
In Malaysia, socialist parties were in fact the main contenders against the Alliance (precursor of BN) at the time of Independence.
If it wasn’t for the dirty tactics of the colonial government and the Alliance using the ISA to detain almost all the socialist leaders just before the 1969 general election, we might have had a different political system today.
The pretenders to the Socialist Front’s “opposition” mantle all these years have finally shown their true colours, joining hands with the ruling party since Independence.
There could not be a better time to have a real opposition in Parliament to voice the people’s demands since the three coalitions have all failed us - they are dominated by race-based parties.
PSM leaders have a proven record of sincerely serving the people, and socialism is proving to be the way forward on the world stage.
Neo-liberal coalitions failed us
After GE15, the unthinkable happened when Pakatan Harapan formed a “unity government” with their former arch-rival and bete noire BN.
Harapan was prepared to swallow all their years of castigation of Umno and the other BN leaders for the sake of ministerial posts.
Before that, in 2018, these coalitions showed they were committed to neo-liberal capitalism, especially when they could accept Dr Mahathir Mohamad – the father of privatisation – as the prime minister, who then proceeded to continue his privatisation agenda.
After GE15, we saw further reneging of Harapan’s election manifesto when the prime minister insisted on being the finance minister as well, appointed his deputy PM who is facing multiple corruption charges, and continued the BN practices of making political appointments to public enterprises.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid HamidiThe “unity government” seems unable to solve the cost-of-living crisis, the falling ringgit, and imported inflation while the B40 and M40 are facing the prospect of a very destitute retirement after contributing to the nation all their working life.
Even a simple case of recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate so that graduates from independent Chinese secondary schools can contribute to the national development seems so difficult to do for the “unity government”.
When Harapan had the chance to show they are different from BN, they failed. Among other things, they appointed their own leaders to top GLC positions and local councils. So where was the political will to bring back local government elections that they promised long ago?
The three coalitions have shown that they have no political will to redistribute wealth to benefit the 99 percent.
In contrast, both BN and Harapan are competing to see which coalition can outdo the other in neo-liberal policies that offer investors attractive opportunities that they can’t refuse, implementing ‘development’ projects that involve carving out forests, reclaiming land, and colonising other assets in our public commons.
We do not see these coalitions putting forward sound policies to redistribute wealth in this country.
Do they propose progressive fiscal policies to tax the top one percent who own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent and the middle 40 percent in our country such as higher marginal tax rates on income, capital gains, inheritance, and luxuries?
The wealth of the richest 50 Malaysians (top 0.00017 percent) amounts to nearly RM300 billion which is a quarter of the country’s total GDP of more than RM1 trillion!
Coalitions dominated by race-based parties
Perhaps the strongest reason for voting against BN, Harapan, and Perikatan Nasional (PN) is the fact that they are dominated by race-based political parties to gain votes and popularity.
This is what we thought we voted against in GE14 and GE15.
In the 2018-20 Harapan government, Mahathir’s “Parti Pribumi” considered itself the “real” champion of the “Bumiputera Agenda” in contrast to Umno.
And while they were in power, DAP forgot their “Malaysian Malaysia” dream because they considered Mahathir the “game changer”! They were quickly proven wrong when Mahathir lost his deposit in GE15.
Former prime minister Dr Mahathir MohamadConsequently, none of the political parties in either of the two coalitions has raised the question of when the racially discriminatory New Economic Policy, originally scheduled to end in 1990, will end.
Most serious of all the manifesto promises that were stalled, was the repeal of laws that violate basic human rights that include abolishing laws that allow detention without trial, namely the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (Poca), and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) 2015.
These continue to be used against Malaysians including human rights defenders.
PSM’s record and example
In sharp contrast to the other Malaysian politicians, who sadly appear to be driven by careerism, PSM leaders are motivated by a commitment to their socialist agenda, helping, and empowering the poor and oppressed, fighting for equality, democracy, and human rights, and taking up the vital nation-building issues in the federal Parliament as well as state assemblies.
Their able and consistent leaders such as Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj and Mohd Nasir Hashim have proven themselves in the federal Parliament and Selangor state legislative assembly.
Former Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar DevarajIt is time to vote for more PSM leaders to stand up for the real demands of the people in the various state assemblies. With limited resources, PSM is putting up candidates only in selected constituencies.
It is important that Malaysians get used to the idea of a third progressive force - the socialist road to our country’s development.
Besides ensuring an end to racial policies and critically needed wealth redistribution, our country needs affordable public housing, health, transport, and education; a just, democratic, and progressive alternative that calls for a living wage and rights for all workers; a reasonable pension for all at retirement; affordable and liveable public housing; affordable and efficient public health and transport; free tertiary education (means tested for the well-off), etc.
Our public assets need to be protected from privatisation so that the needs of the people can be met and not manipulated by private crony capitalists as they have been since the 1980s.
Furthermore, our public utilities such as water and energy must be nationalised and our GLCs democratised in the interest of the people.
Socialism on the world stage
In the international arena, far from Fukuyama’s “End of History”, we see the United States and Nato countries faltering with economic problems, impending recession, social unrest, and trying their worst to create war to divert their people’s attention from their intractable problems.
In sharp contrast and to the chagrin of these Western capitalist countries, a socialist challenger, China has successfully achieved impressive economic growth; marked up record foreign direct investments; expanded trade deals to so many countries; implemented infrastructural feats not only in their own country but across the world; lifted 800 million people out of poverty and met their renewable energy commitments five years ahead of the deadline.
The most important difference between the Western capitalist countries and the socialist East represented by China is the fact that while the US and Nato have doggedly pursued wars in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, and now Ukraine to satiate their military industrial complex, China is busy spreading peace.
Their biggest recent achievement was brokering the peace deal between former arch-enemies Saudi Arabia and Iran. They are also intent on achieving peace between Ukraine and Russia.
To conclude, the capitalist West led by the US is more polarised than ever before and their societies are in turmoil. The writing is on the wall – socialist China will be the number one economy before long.
The state of the Malaysian economy and society is far from ideal either. It is time for all who have hoped for real reforms in Malaysia to start thinking of voting in socialist leaders of PSM into their state assemblies.
With the clowns we had in the state assemblies for so many years since independence, let us give PSM leaders a chance to show the state and the country how different they are from BN, Harapan, and PN.
It is time to build a ‘Third Progressive Force’ for a truly just, democratic, and sustainable future. - Mkini
KUA KIA SOONG is a human rights activist, former Suaram director, and former DAP MP.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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