KENYATAAN AKHBAR – PARTI SOSIALIS MALAYSIA – 20/9/2021

Baru-baru rakyat Cameron Highlands digemparkan dengan pelbagai kejadian tanah runtuh. Salah satu kejadian yang berlaku pada 16hb. September, 2021 di Sg Palas Brinchang menyebabkan seorang wanita meninggal dunia apabila tanah runtuh diatas rumahnya. Satu lagi kejadian tanah runtuh juga berlaku di jalanraya Simpang Pulai ke Cameron Highlands di Seksyen 43.9 sepertimana yang dimaklumkan oleh pihak Jabatan Kerja Raya. 

Kejadian sedemikian tidaklah baru dan kawasan tanah tinggi ini telah lama menjadi mangsa pembangunan yang melampau sejak beberapa dekad yang lalu. Memandangkan Cameron Highlands sememangnya menerima taburan hujan yang tinggi, maka apajua pembangunan yang melibatkan pembersihan hutan, pemotongan pokok, akan mengeruhkan lagi keadaan dan meningkatkan kejadian tanah runtuh. 

Tanah runtuh pertama yang direkodkan di Cameron Highlands adalah pada tahun 1961 dimana ianya mengaut nyawa seramai 16 orang di kawasan Ringlet. Tetapi nampaknya kita gagal belajar dari kejadian-kejadian sedemikian, dan masih bertindak untuk melakukan projek pembinaan berterusan di Cameron Highlands.

Pada masa bila pihak pakar dan Jabatan-jabatan Kerajaan sedang bertungkus lumus memperbaiki jalan dan melaksanakan langkah-langkah mitigasi untuk mengurangkan kejadian tanah runtuh,  pihak pemodal nampaknya hanya bertumpukan kepada mencari lokasi baru yang dapat mengaut keuntungan kepada mereka.  

Kami difahamkan suatu projek taman tema yang dikenali sebagai ESCAPE Cameron Highlands akan dibina dengan keluasan 60ha. Projek ini yang akan dimajukan oleh syarikat Sim Leisure Group dijangka akan membuka fasa pertamanya seluas 24.3 hektar pada tahun 2023. 

PSM Cameron Highlands membantah projek ini yang sudah pastinya melibatkan pembersihan kawasan hutan, pembalakan dan pembangunan cerun. Eksploitasi beterusan dikawasan tanah tinggi ini melalui pelbagai projek pembangunan, hanya menguntungkan pihak pemodal dan merugikan rakyat tempatan dalam pelbagai cara. Rakyat tempatan Cameron Highlands, kinipun merungut kerana kesesakan jalanraya akibat kehadiran pelancong yang melebihi kapasiti kemudahan infrastruktur yang sedia ada.

Pada masa bila para pemodal mengaut keuntungan, rakyatlah yang terpaksa berhadapan bahaya tanah runtuh dan kesesakan jalanraya yang menganggu kehidupan harian mereka. 

Kerajaan Negeri haruslah dengan segera menghentikan projek sedemikian dan membuat evaluasi serius mengenai had pembangunan yang dibenarkan dikawasan tanah tinggi ini. Apakah rasionalnya terus meluluskan pelbagai projek pembangunan sedemikian disuatu lokasi yang terhad keluasannya? Pembangunan tidak terkawal selama beberapa abad ini, menyebabkan semakin hari semakin luas kawasan tanah hutan yang sensitif geologi tanah dan ekosistem dibersihkan. Sudah tentu, impak jangka panjang yang terpendam akan membawa pelbagai kejadian tanah runtuh dan dan sebagainya.

PSM ingin tanya, adakah Kerajaan Negeri tetapkan suatu had pembangunan di Cameron Highlands? Sememangnya tidak masuk akal bagaimana projek pembinaan terus diluluskan dalam suatu kawasan yang kerap memaparkan impak akibat pembangunan seperti ini.

Kejadian tanah runtuh dan pencemaran dengan mudah diketepikan dengan janji palsu bahawa pembangunan baru yang diluluskan itu pasti mampan dan langkah mitigasi telah diambilkira.

Tetapi sejarah kejadian kerosakan alam sekitar sehingga kini jelas menunjukkan bahawa, bilangan projek yang kononnya ‘mampan’ lengkap dengan kelulusan EIA juga  menonjolkan kesan pencemaran dan kemungkinan kejadian tanah runtuh dalam jangka masa panjang. 

Justeru itu, kami menyarankan bahawa semua pembangunan baru di Cameron Highlands harus dibekukan dan dikaji semula keperluannya. Berbanding dengan manfaat ekonomi, kos kehilangan nyawa dan hartabenda tidak dapat diganti apabila musibah berlaku kerana ketamakan manusia. 

Sivarajan  A
Setiausaha Agung Parti Sosialis Malaysia
PSM Cameron Highlands. 
20/9/2021

Sejak tercetusnya pandemik Covid-19 pada Mac 2020, PSM telah mendesak Kerajaan agar memperkenalkan suatu Skim Jaminan Pendapatan Asas, atau Guaranteed Basic Income kepada sesiapa yang kehilangan punca pendapatan akibat pandemik Covid 19. 

Dokumen pelan tindakan PSM bertajuk “Kemelesetan Ekonomi Pasca Covid 19 : Cadangan Memulihkan Negara Demi Rakyat” membawa cadangan agar setiap keluarga yang kehilangan punca pendapatan haruslah dibayar sebanyak RM1000 untuk memastikan bahawa keluarga tersebut tidak terjerumus dalam kancah kemiskinan. Dokumen ini telah diserahkan kepada Perdana Menteri pada Julai, 2020. 

Tetapi malangnya Kerajaan masih kekal dengan modal bantuan yang bersifat ‘one off’ .Skim Bantuan Khas Covid (BKC) yang diperkenalkan juga berupa bayaran ‘one off’ dimana golongan miskin tegar akan dibayar RM 1,300/isi rumah, RM 500 untuk warga emas dan RM500 untuk bujang secara ansuran.  B40 pula akan menerima bayaran RM800/isi rumah, RM200 untuk warga emas dan bujang RM 200. Bantuan BKC juga dipanjangkan kepada golongan M40. Golongan M40 merupakan mereka yang mempunyai pendapatan isu keluarga melebihi RM 5000. Sebanyak 3.1 billion di khususkan untuk bayaran tersebut. 

PSM membawa cadangan bahawa, berbanding dengan bayaran sekali gus ‘one off’ yang disebarkan luas dari golongan miskin tegar sehinggalah M40, adalah lebih memanfaatkan jika Kerajaan memfokuskan bantuan kepada isi rumah yang benar-benar kehilangan punca pendapatan akibat Covid 19. Bantuan melalui Skim Jaminan Pendapatan Asas yang berupa Universal Basic Income (UBI) ini dapat membantu isi rumah tersebut menangani kos asas rumah tangga seperti makanan dan sebagainya. 

Dalam suatu kajian lapangan yang dibuat oleh Jabatan Statistik Malaysia , pada March 2020, mereka mendapati golongan yang paling ketara kehilangan kerja ialah mereka yang bekerja sendiri. Sebanyak 46.6% dari responden yang kerja sendiri menyatakan bahawa mereka kehilangan pendapatan berbanding dengan, 23.8% bekerja dengan majikan, 1.8% sektor swasta, 0.4% kerja dengan syarikat Multinasional dan 0.4% yang bekerja dengan syarikat GLC(Government Linked Company)

Kajian yang sama melaporkan, seramai 71.4% responden yang bekerja sendiri hanya mempunyai simpanan yang mencukupi untuk kurang dari satu bulan pendapatan mereka, berbanding dengan 49.2% responden yang bermajikan, 58% bekerja dengan swasta, 31.2% kerja dengan syarikat Multinasional dan 38.9% yang bekerja dengan syarikat GLC. Maka bantuan segera secara bulanan pada masa-masa kritikal apabila mereka kehilangan kerja adalah amat penting sekali. Rujukan

PSM mencadangkan bantuan ini hanya kepada mereka yang hilang kerja dan tiada apajua sumber bantuan yang lain. Maka mereka yang menerima bantuan lain dikecualikan seperti mereka yang 

1. Sedang mencarum pada Perkeso yang boleh memanfaatkan SIP dan sebagainya, 
2. Menerima pencen tetap (sama ada pesara kerajaan atau lain) yang amaunya lebih dari RM1,000/sebulan
3. Kakitangan kerajaan
4. Masih mempunyai pekerjaan alternatif (selepas kehilangan kerja utama)
5. Masih ada sumber pendapatan yang layak membayar cukai persendirian
6. Masih bekerja di sektor awam atau swasta/berniaga dan sebagainya . 

Cadangan ini dikhususkan kepada sesiapa yang kehilangan sumber pendapatan seperti pekerja di sektor formal, pekerja persendirian berskala kecil, peniaga bersifat mikro yang kehilangan punca pendapatan pada waktu ini. 

Kini, bantuan yang diberikan oleh Kerajaan seperti Subsidi Upah ataupun bantuan dari Skim Insurans Pekerja (PERKESO) hanya membantu pekerja sektor formal sahaja. 

Manakala lebih kurang 3 juta pekerja tidak formal dan 2 juta yang terlibat dalam pekerjaan sendiri tiada sebarang sistem sokongan apabila mereka kehilangan punca pendapatan akibat penutupan bisnes masa pandemik ini. 

Anggaran peruntukan yang diperlukan jika skim ini dipanjangkan kepada 700,000 keluarga (10%) sebanyak RM1000 sebulan, maka kita memerlukan RM8.4 billion setahun.

Konsep bantuan Skim Jaminan Pendapatan Asas ini tercetus dari konsep Universal Basic Income (UBI) atau konsep Pendapatan Asas Sejagat. Ianya bukan untuk menjadikan rakyat malas, dengan bayaran tunai RM1000 setiap bulan kepada akuan mereka, Tetapi ianya merupakan suatu jaringan sosial memastikan isi keluarga yang kehilangan punca pendapatan secara mendadak tidak tersungkur dengan kelaparan. Penjelasan lanjut konsep UBI ini boleh difahami dari penulisan berikut.

Jika diambil Garis Kemiskinan terkini iaitu RM 2208, dianggarkan terdapat sehingga 8.3% isi rumah yang berada dalam golongan ini. Ancaman Covid dan kemelesetan ekonomi yang menjurus menekan rakyat terbawah ini dengan paling dahsyat sekali. Maka bayangkan bila mereka ini kehilangan punca pendapatan? Bantuan segera RM1000 terus kepada isi rumah mereka sekurang-kurangnya membolehkan keluarga tersebut menyediakan makanan dan keperluan asas sehinggalah ketua isi rumah dapat mencari kerja atau sumber pendapatan yang baru. 

Maka PSM dalam dokumen pelan tindakan “Pemulihan Nasional Haluan Baru Untuk Malaysia – Permintaan Rakyat Mudah Je” meletakkan hujah bahawa rakyat perlu bantuan Skim Jaminan Pendapatan Asas dengan segera dan bukannya bantuan berupa ‘one off’ yang jelas gagal memulihkan sosio ekonomi isi rumah terjejas dengan efektif.

Sivarajan Arumugam
Setiausaha Agung, Parti Sosialis Malaysia

PRESS STATEMENT – 10 SEPT, 2021 – PARTI SOSIALIS MALAYSIA

A New Deal for Malaysia – Socialists Launch Progressive Recovery Plan

In the last 18 months, 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 SME’s struggled to survive and self- employed micro business had to shut down their hard built businesses when costs outran their revenue. They were forced to look for alternate source of income overnight.

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

Malaysia’s has a long standing conviction to the neoliberal path by detracting from government’s responsibility of providing for the basic essential services for the rakyat and promoting privatization of public services. After three decades of aggressive privatization, we are left with a weakened public healthcare system, monetized education, dismantled safeguards for workers, 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 thought us are; 

1. The Pandemic and its induced economic crisis, hits the B40 the hardest. Despite the undistinguishable attack of the virus amongst the rich and poor, but a household’s income and job security often determines if they can remain resilient throughout the pandemic. 
2. Jobs that were taught to be secure could just vanish 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. But when economic downturn strikes, private sector faltered and downsized their workforce and froze 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 privatization of healthcare, health tourism and incentives for private medical care, but it has been blatantly proven that was the public healthcare system that provided care to the rakyat under the pandemic. Private healthcare was reluctant and moved extremely slow to relieve the load off government hospitals to take in Covid patients.
5. Sectors of our working people often forgotten and marginalized by many were actually the ones holding up the nation in times of crises. Those that provided essential services such as farmers, cleaners, garbage collectors, lorry drivers, delivery riders played a critical role to keep the supply and services going.  We realized that it was not the fund managers, the speculators, the stock marketers and the bourgeois elite that stood 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 it cannot return to business as usual and we need to seriously to revamp our economic and development model in order to make ourselves more resilient to future crises.

But the political and corporate elite whom were 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 of the Barisan Nasional over the last 60 over years was sadly continued by Pakatan Harapan in its 22 month stint at Putrajaya. It was merely a change of guards with minimal attempt for structural change.

PSM believes that the task of ensuring basic needs are met for the rakyat is the responsibility of government. The government cannot stop at extending easy credit to the banks and giving cash incentives to businesses to preserve and/or create jobs. But 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.  Has the political elite realized that they must step in and supply basic needs and services when the market fails to do so?

In this time of crisis, the people without income will be marginalized 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 a paradigm shift towards a progressive people centered action plan, PSM puts forward a new deal for Malaysia. The 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 “Permintaan Rakyat Mudah Je” translated to mean “People’s Needs Are Straightforward”

The action plan “Pemulihan Nasional Haluan Baru Untuk Malaysia – Permintaan Rakyat Mudah Je” propounds 5 PILLARS as follows; 

1. Empowering Social Security 
2. Job Guarantee Scheme 
3. Housing 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; 

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

Job Guarantee Scheme

1. Green jobs.
2. Increase job opportunities in farming and food production. 
3. Construction and equipping healthcare facilities. 
4. Jobs in conservation activities, re forestation and restoration of heritage sites.
5. Increase Research opportunities in medical and pharmacological activities.
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. Socialization 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.

Housing a human right

1. Build more PPR units for the B20
2. Decouple public housing from the market
3. Stop forced evictions of urban pioneers. Offer land to occupiers not 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.

Strengthen Public Healthcare System

1. Rope in General Practitioners to assist 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.

Immediate Action to tackle Climate Crisis

1. 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 forest.

The proposals outlined in the document “Pemulihan Nasional Haluan Baru Untuk Malaysia Permintaan Rakyat Mudah je” 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 saveguard the rakyat’s interest in times of crisis.

PSM will expand on each of this proposal through various outreach programs planned from now, after the launch of the campaign yesterday 9th Sept, 2021 by PSM National Chairperson Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj.

Sivarajan A
PSM Secretary General

Read the full document (Malay), or watch the launch program.

Kelemahan struktur pentadbiran Malaysia telah didedahkan apabila pandemik COVID-19 melanda.

Sistem ekonomi neoliberal jelas gagal melindungi rakyat terbanyak apabila sebuah pandemik sebegini menyerang kita. Pemerintahan yang pro-korporat telah melemahkan batu asas jaringan perlindungan sosial selama ini lalu mendedahkan rakyat kepada pelbagai tekanan sosioekonomi.

Kegagalan tersebut perlu diatasi untuk pulih dari pandemik ini serta mengukuhkan asas jaringan perlindungan sosial supaya kita bersedia menangani cabaran pada masa akan datang.

Oleh itu, PSM melancarkan suatu pelan PEMULIHAN NASIONAL : Haluan Baru Untuk Malaysia dengan seruan “Permintaan Rakyat Mudah Je” untuk mengalakkan rakyat bersama menentukan hala tuju pembangunan negara.

Parti Sosialis Malaysia menyeru kepada semua Ahli Dewan Negeri Kerajaan Negeri Pahang yang akan bersidang pada 23hb.Ogos.2021 ini, agar membatalkan segera projek perlombongan nadir bumi Lanthanide yang diluluskan oleh Kerajaan Negeri Pahang. Susulan kelulusan yang diberikan oleh Pejabat  Tanah dan Galian Pahang pada tahun 2019, syarikat perlombongan Aras Kuasa Sdn Bhd akan membersihkan 660 ha kawasan Hutan Simpanan Kekal Hulu Jelai, Kuala Lipis Pahang untuk melaksanakan perlombongan ini.

Kami amat terkejut mengetahui bagaimana suatu kawasan yang masih diklasifikasikan sebagai Hutan Simpanan Kekal dalam Rancangan Tempatan Daerah Lipis boleh di nyah wartakan dari rizab Hutan Simpanan tanpa melalui proses bantahan awam.

Pengerak projek Aras Kuasa Sdn Bhd memperkenalkan suatu teknologi perlombongan yang dikenali sebagai ‘in-situ leaching’. Proses in-situ leaching ini melibatkan proses, mengepam bahan kimia kedalam tanah dan melarutkan bahan mineral yang dikehendaki. Teknologi dari China ini tidak pernah dilakukan di Malaysia lebih-lebih lagi dikawasan Hutan Simpanan Kekal.

Perlaksanaan teknologi tersebut di Jiangxi selatan China juga menimbulkan pelbagai masalah pencemaran komposisi tanah, pencemaran air bawah tanah dan air sungai. Pengumpulan bahan kimia yang akan dimasukkan dalam tanah selama dua tahun (tempoh aktiviti perlombongan) ini akan terkumpul dan mencemari alam sekitar untuk jangkamasa panjang, selepas pengerak projek mengaut keuntungan dan meninggalkan tapak lombong. 

https://e360.yale.edu/features/china-wrestles-with-the-toxic-aftermath-of-rare-earth-mining

Rakyat telah bangkit membantah projek kilang pemprosesan nadir bumi di Lynas Kuantan Pahang, walaupun nadir bumi tersebut diimport dari Australia dan ianya hanya diproses di Lynas. Tetapi, projek ini lebih teruk lagi , kerana nadir bumi Lanthanide ini akan dilombong di bumi Hutan Simpanan Hulu Jelai , mengunakan suatu teknologi yang belum terbukti setakat mana ianya akan mencemari alam sekitar.

Penempatan terdekat yang akan kena tempias projek perlombongan ini ialah Kampung Orang Asli Pos Lanai kerana tapak lombong berada dihulu Sungai Telom.  Sungai Telom yang menjadi sumber air kepada semua aktiviti kebun, ikan kepada komuniti Orang Asli Semai ini, mengalir betul-betul melalui tapak perlombongan ini ! Komuniti Pos Lanai lah akan menjadi masyarakat pertama yang akan terkesan secara langsung jika perlombongan ini dibenarkan.

Sudah kah kita lupa bagaimana Orang Asli dari suku kaum Bateq Kuala Koh Kelantan meninggal dunia akibat pencemaran dipercayai dari air lombong mangan selepas perlombongan itu ditutup.

Lokasi tapak perlombongan ini juga dipercayai duduk di punca air ‘river basin’ yang mengalir ke Sungai Pahang yang menjadi sumber air untuk rakyat Pahang. Kami juga dimaklumkan oleh Pengurusan Air Pahang (PAiP) bahawa loji-loji air yang mengunakan Sg Jelai telah ditutup sebanyak 23 kali sepanjang tahun 2020 sebab aktiviti perlombongan dan perladangan yang mencemari punca air.  Pihak Suruhanjaya Pengurusan Air Negara ( SPAN) juga memberikan amaran bahawa terdapat 18 ‘water intake’, iaitu 5 loji rawatan di Sg Jelai dan 13 loji di Sg Pahang yang terpaksa ditutup jika pencemaran berlaku . Ianya akan menyebabkan bekalan air untuk lebih 120,000 akaun penguna terputus.

Justeru itu, para Ahli Dewan Negeri secara bipartisan harus membantah projek perlombongan ini dengan segera kerana kos kemusnahan alam sekitar, pencemaran air dan kehilangan nyawa tidak dapat digantikan dengan hasil pulangan cukai dan royalti kepada dana Negeri.

Sumber Alam adalah harta warisan keseluruhan rakyat Pahang dan bukanlah milik khas mana-mana Kerajaan yang memerintah. Kerajaan hanyalah bertugas sebagai pemegang amanah yang menjaga warisan alam ini bagi pihak rakyat. Maka dilarang mengondol kekayaan sumber alam untuk kepentingan segelintir, lebih-lebih lagi apabila ianya menghancurkan alam sekitar untuk generasi yang akan datang. 

Sivarajan A.

Setiausaha Agung Parti Sosialis Malaysia

By Sivarajan A, Secretary General, Parti Sosialis Malaysia

The only positive outcome for the rakyat whom have been mere spectators to the unfolding political drama these couple of weeks are the hard lessons we can learn from it.

We are in this mess because of two reasons; one because we trusted lock stock and barrel our politicians ; two the bourgeoisie democratic system is flawed and need to be fixed.

Let’s not forget, Pakatan whom we trusted to save Malaysia from the kleptocrats fell from a coup within and not from any attacks of its political enemies from the outside. So what happened? Why did we have turn-coat politicians amongst Pakatan’s fold? Was Anwar fooled or did he know of the fox amongst the sheep?

For the ¬rakyat we are not privy of these political games played by politicians, because we were so overwhelmed by the wave to topple BN in 2018.

But recently we were also taken aback, when some Pakatan leaders recently ‘welcomed back’ the same defectors whom they were condemning as pengkhianat for the past year. In a rush to meet enough numbers for Anwar. These turn coats suddenly became our savior. Similar maneuvers were also made by Mahiaddins camp to consolidate support from the kleptocrats.

The rakyat has gotten sick of these never ending games by the political elite. This has led to the recent narrative amongst many that politicians cannot be trusted. Either we choose to shun politicians or not, but no solution will come if we isolate ourselves from politics. If we are disappointed with the elite politics then we should aggressively build alternate solutions in preparation for GE15, so that we don’t make the same mistakes again.

Firstly while the parliamentary democracy system that we have today has many deficiencies but, at the moment, it’s the only way into legislature so that real changes can be made. But in order to get the right people in to make those changes we need to make informed choices by really asking key questions like;

1. What are the candidates or the party they belong to political ideology? It’s about time that we dump race based parties, as over and over again they have proven to only enrich the elite amongst their race by fear mongering that the ‘others’ are out to take away your rights. Race rhetoric keeps them in power!
2. What is their class perspective, are they speaking from a T20 position looking down or can they relate to working peoples issues? Was their election campaign funded by big businesses, which they will have returned a favor by approving projects for later?
3. Will they be principled and brave enough to take on big businesses when they pollute the environment and destroy communities?
4. Besides handing out ‘bakul makanan’ during difficult times, will they also put forward concrete policies to overcome poverty?
5. Will they challenge neoliberalism that seeks to privatize healthcare, education by degrading the quality of public service to enrich private investors?
6. Will they protect the right of people with different sexual orientation or seek to mock and victimize them?
   The list goes on…

These are not difficult questions, but they are questions that will define the candidate when as an MP or ADUN, how they will solve your everyday problems.
It all boils down to the political ideology and agenda that the aspiring politician and his party have to offer.

The presence of these progressives might not be enough to form the government, but at least they could be an independent block offering fresh perspective in Parliament. We need a form a progressive 3rd block in Parliament that can echo a clear voice against neoliberalism, racism and the power of capital.

The 2nd lesson that we have learnt is that the system shapes politicians into corrupt and self-serving individuals. How is this so? Firstly, the remunerations and perks of an MP, immediately rockets you into an “orang kayangan”. A goodhearted MP without sound ideological grounding on the issues mentioned above will soon find a place in the corrupt system.

Furthermore the system has in place a very strong structure that serves political patronage. BN, PN and PH have used it for their own political leverage. Maybe PH didn’t explore it as sophisticated as BN did during its 60 year plus tenure.

While concerned citizens and civil society organizations are enthusiastically making a wish list on how this ‘new’ pandemic cabinet should be, but the political elites are making a list of their own. Unfortunately it’s not the same list.

For Ismail Sabri the 9th Prime Minister that will take oath and come to power soon, he is already charting a path for his continued stay in power. This means consolidating political power by any means necessary. And we have a polished system in place that enables this. The various government agencies, GLC’s, departments etc. all wait for political appointees to head them. On top of that you can always create a new position when all the chairs get filled up.

Until when we break this cancerous system, the corrupt political financing mechanism where government contracts are given out to party members so that there will be kickbacks to party funds will continue to feast.

It feeds further all the way to buy support for political camps as we have seen since the infamous Sheraton move.

Thus, while we need to pressure the Ismail Sabri’s ‘interim’ government to deliver and take us out of the pandemic, but we also need to build a progressive political force with socialist, youths, workers, grass root movements, climate activist, gender activist, human rights activist and many more to break the hegemony of the two party bourgeoisie parliamentary system. We need to end the situation of having to choose the lesser of two evils in the absence of a truly people centered progressive alternative.

Sivarajan
Parti Sosialis Malaysia Secretary General
20th Aug, 2021.