Teras 5: Tangani krisis iklim segera

KUALA LUMPUR, AUGUST 2 2022: On July 26 2022, the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH) proposed a bill in parliament which is referred to as the Control of Tobacco Product and Smoking Bill 2022 with the aim of ending the consumption of tobacco products among Malaysians born on January 1 2007 and later. Although the vision is favourable from a medical and health perspective, the contents of the bill are problematic particularly in terms of enforcement.

Firstly, clause 17 stipulates that any person born on January 1 2007 onwards who is found guilty of smoking or possessing any tobacco product or substitute, or even just using any smoking device shall be liable to a fine not exceeding RM500 (initially RM5000 but has been reduced according to a tweet by YB Khairy Jamaluddin). This means that a punitive method will be used to combat smoking addiction which is a health issue, not a crime, further stigmatising it among the community. On top of that, the deliberate decision of implementing a fine will lead to lower income people being disproportionately affected as it will further burden them financially. It is common knowledge that punishment is not a deterrent and a person who is fined has no actual incentive to cease their smoking; they will merely be more vigilant to avoid getting into trouble again with the authorities. Thus, the bill is clearly contradictory to its supposed end goal.

Besides that, clauses 26, 31, and 34 pose a great threat to the safety of the people as they unnecessarily empower authoritative bodies, enabling them to abuse their power and terrorise individuals as well as communities. This is largely due to the use of ambiguous language within the bill. There is no clear indication of what is considered as suspicious behaviour to justify giving power to the authorities to enter premises, stop, search as well as seize conveyance, and access recorded information including but not limited to computerised data. Passing the bill without revising these clauses will jeopardise the security and privacy of people, including those who are in proximity to a suspect. The passing of the ineffective IPCC bill should also be highlighted as there is currently no strong independent body to monitor the activities of the authorities, further accentuating the inevitable abuse of power that will come with the passing of this bill.

Moreover, clause 33 which empowers the authorities to enforce measures contained within clause 32 without a warrant is detrimental to the people. Regardless of whether or not the authorities do possess reason to forgo a delayed warrant in order to search and seize a premise (by force if necessary as provided in clause 32), this sets a precedent for them to do so anyway, being held accountable for it (if at all) only after it has been weaponized against a suspect. This is clearly an unnecessary amount of power to give to any authoritative body which harms the people, especially marginalised and lower income groups who are disproportionately targeted by them.

As mentioned, YB Khairy Jamaluddin, the Minister of Health, has uploaded a tweet on August 1 2022 at 6.15pm which states that some small amendments have been made to the bill including the reduction of the maximum fine, the addition of a community service option, the outlawing of body searches on those below 18 years old, and the removal of punishments for those who are caught possessing tobacco products. However, these changes are insufficient as the clauses that enable abuse of power still exist. The alterations on the other hand have not changed the efficacy of the bill as whether it is a fine of RM 500 or RM 5000, they are both huge amounts for lower income people, causing them to still be disproportionately affected. In addition, no one should be subjected to a body search for committing any offence related to this bill.

In summary, the Control of Tobacco Product and Smoking Bill 2022 proposed by the MOH should be thoroughly revised before even being considered to pass in parliament. It is full of dangerous provisions that expose the people to violations of their democratic and human rights. With this, Pemuda Sosialis demands for a bill that is designed with the best interest of the people in mind, centering methods of rehabilitation instead of punishment in order to resolve the issue of smoking in the nation. The MOH should also consider providing free nicotine patches and other safe alternatives to aid people in overcoming their smoking addiction if they truly care about the people’s health.

Titania

Ahli Jawatankuasa

Pemuda Sosialis

It is easier, as Frederic Jameson once remarked, to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. His words echo truly in Malaysia, where the axioms of liberal capitalism and “good governance” still hold us hostage. 

The specters of the Emergency, the global Red Scare, and sixty years of right-wing dictatorship haunt us still. Even the most progressive political voices are still only able to call for lukewarm social reforms, leaving the base economic structure unchallenged. It is almost impossible to imagine a genuine alternative for Malaysia, where the economy works for the people, and workers’ interests are represented and protected.  

That is precisely why Volume 15 of the Socialist Perspective magazine is an important read. This publication collects many of the thoughts and triumphs of the socialist movement in Malaysia, as seen through the writings of many of Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s (PSM) leading members. From reflections on recent struggles to punchy commentaries on domestic & international affairs, and even touching memorials to late comrades. This volume is an important contribution to the formation of a truly Malaysian socialism, formulated from & suited to the material conditions that the rakyat and marhaen are facing. 

There is no better antidote to despair for Malaysians than to see the good works & praxis that already exist. Socialist Perspective is, as always, a good reminder to all its readers that our struggles continue, and that the fight for a better Malaysia is alive and well.

Socialist Perspectives 15 is available by post, as well as walk-in purchases at PSM’s Headquarters

For Walk-in purchases:
Ibu Pejabat Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)
No. 140, Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad,
Brickfield 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Google Maps : https://goo.gl/maps/op73ABnwhxXuiD83A

For other purchases, or buying in bulk, contact:
016-2290460 (Sook Hwa)

Untuk penggal 2022-2024, komrad-komrad di bawah telah dipilih untuk menjadi barisan ahli jawatankuasa Pemuda Sosialis.

Pengerusi: Arveent Kathirtchelvan

Saya seorang aktivis berlandasan Marxisme-Leninisme yang berfokus kepada perkembangan sistem ekonomi dan politik sosialisme di Malaysia. Bersama Pemuda Sosialis, saya ingin berusaha mengasah bakat serta mengembangkan potensi aktivis sosialis muda supaya lapisan aktivis kini dapat terus dikukuhkan. Saya juga seorang aktivis alam sekitar yang berminat dalam isu sumber tenaga alternatif.

Timbalan Pengerusi: Ahmad Yasin @ Sin

Seorang pelajar dengan minat untuk menulis namun sering ditimpa kemalasan yang melarat. Telah menghasilkan beberapa penulisan yang berfokuskan isu komuniti marginal. Mempunyai impian untuk menyaksikan penganut konservatisme dan kapitalisme ditelan bumi serta menjadi baja bagi menyuburkan dunia baru yang lebih mulia untuk semua.

Setiausaha: Gandipan Nantha Gopalan

Seorang graduan jurusan Petroleum Geoscience yang ingin membantu sedaya upaya dalam menggerakkan gerakan sosialisme dan marhaen di negara. Ayuh pemuda-pemudi negara kita dalam menentang ketidakadilan sosial dan membina sebuah masyarakat yang lebih sejahtera untuk semua.

Bendahari: Yap Xin Yit

Sepanjang dua tahun penglibatan saya dalam Pemuda Sosialis, saya telah mengasaskan Biro Keadilan Kekurangan Upaya dan aktif menyumbangkan tenaga kepada Jaringan Pekerja Kontrak Kerajaan (JPKK) untuk membantu pekerja kontrak dalam perkhidmatan awam.

Ahli-Ahli Jawatankuasa:

Emil Malek Chew @ Viktor

Penglibatan saya dalam aktivisme bermula pada tiga tahun yang lepas apabila saya membantu menubuhkan MISI Solidariti (MS). Melalui MS, saya telah memberi sokongan kepada gerakan #Lawan dan #Demi1086. Sejak Januari 2022, saya telah mengetuai Biro Propaganda Pemuda Sosialis dan menggerakkan projek seperti Sosialisme 101. Untuk penggal ini, saya ingin berdedikasi menjayakan Parti dari segi Biro Propaganda dan juga projek jangka masa panjang Pemuda Sosialis yang lain.

Sean

Saya seorang pelajar psikologi yang memahami bahawa krisis kesihatan mental berasal dari sistem kapitalisme yang saban hari kian menyebabkan ramai orang bunuh diri setiap tahun. Saya ingin menjayakan program PSM merampas kuasa supaya isu-isu marhaen boleh diutamakan.

Audrey Chan

Sejak menjadi ahli PSM pada 7 bulan yang lalu, saya telah menulis 2 artikel yang mengetengahkan krisis iklim dunia. Saya juga aktif turun padang dan menyumbang tenaga sebagai ahli Biro Alam Sekitar dan Krisis Iklim (BASKI) dan Biro Propaganda serta mengambil bahagian dalam Gabungan Darurat Iklim Malaysia (GDIMY) dan Forum Kedaulatan Makanan Malaysia (FKMM). Saya cuma rakyat marhaen yang hendak aktif berjuang demi rakyat marhaen.

Titania

Saya berpengalaman selama setahun dalam bidang advokasi LGBTQIA+ dan ingin mengembangkan lagi usaha dalam membebaskan semua golongan kemacar.

Amanda

Saya percaya kepada kepentingan persimpangan dalam setiap aspek. Bersama PSM, saya berhasrat untuk meruntuhkan sistem kapitalis kini bersama komrad-komrad saya. Tidak sesekali patut kita lupakan, kita tidak akan kehilangan apa-apa kecuali rantai kita.

Daenie

Sebagai seorang queer dengan kekurangan upaya, saya berdedikasi dalam membawa isu-isu OKU ke hadapan dan berjuang untuk sistem baharu yang menitikberatkan kepentingan orang kurang upaya. Bersama PSM, saya berhasrat untuk menggalakkan lebih banyak golongan OKU mengambil landasan tindakan langsung!

KEMPEN PEMULIHAN NASIONAL – PEKA NASIB KAMI! RAKYAT MINTA LIMA!

Press Statement
22nd May 2022

In the last 2 years, we have been fighting Covid-19 and the pandemic induced economic crisis that followed due to business shutdowns and movement control restrictions. As of November 2020, around 100,000 people have lost their jobs and many more in the informal sector would have lost their income. 

The pandemic has exposed the failures of Capitalism the world over and Malaysia has not been spared. Although business shutdowns and movement control orders were imposed across the board to all sectors of the population, but the impact on society varies along class lines. The poor were the most badly hit. Many lost their jobs as SMEs struggled to survive and self-employed micro businesses had to shut down their hard built businesses when cost outran their revenue. They were forced to look for alternate sources of income overnight.

Besides losing their source of livelihood, urban poor staying in 650 sq feet PPR public housing found it impossible to carry out social distancing and situations were exacerbated during isolation as their family members were required to be quarantined. 

The Malaysian government in its long standing conviction to the neoliberal path has been detracting from its responsibility of providing basic essential services for the rakyat and promoting privatisation of public services. After three decades of aggressive privatisation, we are left with a weakened public healthcare system, expensive education, workers with dismantled safeguards, an increase in precarious work, unaffordable housing and a widening disparity between the rich and poor. 

The pandemic shattered the already weak social security system, throwing poor households and even the M40 into sudden poverty. Some of the hard lessons the pandemic has taught us are; 

1. The Pandemic and its induced economic crisis has hit the B40 the hardest. Despite the indiscriminate attack of the virus amongst the rich and poor, a household’s income and job security often determines if they can remain resilient throughout the pandemic. 

2. Jobs that were thought to be secure just vanished overnight and many were left to fend for themselves, struggling desperately to put food on the table. Without a comprehensive social security system, many fell through the cracks.

3. We were always told to believe that the private sector is the key driver for economic progress that provides jobs for the rakyat. However, when economic downturn strikes, the companies in the private sector falter, downsize their workforce and freeze new job openings. Many projects were put on hold and unemployment soared to 4.8% as at June, 2021(DOSM). The impact is larger as many have been forced from formal employment into underemployment and informal work. 

4. Although policy makers always pushed for more privatisation of healthcare, health tourism and incentives for private medical care, it has been blatantly proven that it was the public healthcare system that provided care to the rakyat throughout the pandemic. Private healthcare was reluctant to take in Covid patients and moved extremely slowly to relieve the load off of government hospitals.

5. Sectors of our working people who are often forgotten and marginalised by many are the ones who actually hold up the nation in times of crises. Those that provide essential services such as farmers, cleaners, garbage collectors, lorry drivers, delivery riders play a critical role to keep the supply and services going. We realise that it is not the fund managers, the speculators, the stock marketers and the bourgeois elite that stand out in these trying times.

These hard lessons need to be understood and acted upon so that we don’t make the same mistakes again. These experiences have taught us that we cannot return to business as usual and instead to take efforts to revamp our economic and development model seriously in order to make ourselves more resilient to future crises.

The political and corporate elite who were the least affected economically and socially by the pandemic will not be jolted to offer a progressive alternative for Malaysia. The neoliberal, corporate driven economic model has been accepted by both political coalitions. It was merely a change of guards with minimal attempt for structural change.

PSM believes that the task of ensuring that the basic needs are met for the rakyat is the responsibility of government. The government cannot stop at only extending easy credit to the banks and giving cash incentives for businesses to preserve and/or create jobs. We believe that given the marked loss in aggregate demand, these stimuli will not solve the problem as elaborated above. 

Trickle down approach fails to solve core structural problems in our policies.  Have the political elite failed to realise that they must step in and supply basic needs and services when the market fails to do so?

In these times of crises, people without income will be marginalised if we rely on market based approaches. The market fails when human need is not backed up by purchasing power. There is a real risk that a significant number of Malaysian families will not be able to provide basic needs – food, shelter and health care for themselves! And that is not acceptable!

As the paradigm shifts towards a progressive people centred action plan, PSM is putting forward a new deal for Malaysia. This new way forward attempts to take Malaysia on a path to dismantle the adverse effects of neoliberalism by enhancing our social security and rebuilding our basic support pillars for the rakyat’s well-being. Our new deal proposals are aptly themed “KEMPEN PEMULIHAN NASIONAL – PEKA NASIB KAMI! RAKYAT MINTA LIMA!

The action plan propounds 5 PILLARS as follows; 

1. Empowering Social Security 
2. Job Guarantee Scheme 
3. Housing as a human right 
4. Reinforcing Public Healthcare 
5. Immediate Action to tackle Climate Crisis. 

The ideas being put forward by each pillar are briefly stated as follows; 

1. Empowering Social Security for working people

1. Introduce a Modified Universal Basic Income 
2. End outsourcing of government services and absorb contract workers as permanent government staff
3. Amend Labour and Social Security Acts to provide protection for ‘gig’ workers and precarious employment 
4. Reform PERKESO’s Employment Insurance Scheme
5. Monthly pensions for those above 65 years old

2. Job Guarantee Scheme For Youth

1. Green jobs
2. Increase job opportunities in farming and food production
3. Constructing more and equipping healthcare facilities better
4. Jobs in conservation activities, reforestation and restoration of heritage sites
5. Increase research opportunities in medical and pharmacological fields
6. Increase social welfare workers to provide direct assistance to the needy
7. Ground officers to monitor implementation of government programs
8. Childcare work 
9. Socialisation of housework 
10. Reduce working hours
11. Compel Government Linked Companies to fund and initiate such job guarantee schemes 
12. Introduce a law against anti-discrimination in employment.

3. Housing as a human right

1. Build more rental PPR units for the B20
2. Decouple public housing from the market
3. Stop forced evictions of urban pioneers. Offer land to occupiers, not to third parties
4. Establish a Non-profit trust fund to build houses for the B40 
5. Maintenance of low cost housing apartments to be taken over by local councils

4. Strengthen Public Healthcare System

1. Rope in General Practitioners to assist in treating patients with chronic diseases to relieve the burden of Government Hospitals
2. Use levy collected from migrant workers to pay for their healthcare cost
3. Government should bear the cost of implants and surgical accessories at Hospitals 
4. Ministry of Health budget needs to be increased
5. Quality and affordable healthcare is social wage for the rakyat

5. Immediate Action to tackle Climate Crisis

1. Work towards 100% renewable energy
2. Address pollution from Petroleum Industries
3. Increase public transport infrastructure and ridership
4. Moratorium on logging and mining in primary reserve forests

The proposals outlined in the document “KEMPEN PEMULIHAN NASIONAL – PEKA NASIB KAMI! RAKYAT MINTA LIMA! requires political will driven by clear class perspective and an anti-neoliberal stance to push for concrete changes. Malaysia’s recovery and progress requires a serious paradigm shift; decoupling itself from neoliberal policies that have clearly failed to safeguard the interest of the  rakyat in times of crisis.

The campaign will be launched concurrently on 22^nd May, 2022 in Pulau Pinang, Kedah, Perak, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Johor.  

Subsequently we will embark on a national campaign tour, to promote the 5 key demands and why Malaysia needs to immediately proceed on an economic path away from the neoliberal model. 

The events planned in the coming weeks are as follows 

• Campaign convoy to key cities.   
• Engaging with the rakyat on the 5 pillars.  
• Gathering feedback on local issues and endorsement for the demands. 
• Banners in key areas. 
• Group discussions 
• Solidarity visits to communities involved in struggles 
• Participation sessions with local civil society organisations. 

Please look out for upcoming campaign information soon. 

You may read the full 5 Pillar proposals here:  

For more information, please contact:  

Sivarajan A,

pusat@partisosialis.org

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the increasingly authoritarian Turkish president who hypocritically pretended to be a “peacemaker” in the Ukraine war has ordered the latest round of cross-border attacks which took effect on 17th April 2022, targeting areas controlled by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas in Southern Kurdistan (Northern Iraq).

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Presiden Turki yang semakin bersifat autoritarian yang secara hipokritnya berpura-pura cuba menonjolkan diri sebagai “pendamai” kepada perang di Ukraine, telah mengarahkan serangan rentas sempadan yang terbaru bermula pada 17 April 2022, dengan mensasarkan kawasan yang dikuasai oleh golongan gerila Parti Pekerja Kurdistan (PKK) di wilayah Kurdistan Selatan (Iraq Utara).