PSM fears dirtiest election ever

By Luke Rintod of FMT

Frequent BN scandals plaguing its leaders including Umno's
Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who is embroiled in the NFC scandal,
are spurring its loss of credibility.

SUNGAI SIPUT: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), a political party that is not a member of Pakatan Rakyat but aligned to it, believes that the ruling Barisan Nasional is poised to lose grip on power in the impending 13th general election, if it is to be a clean election.

PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan said despite of what Umno, the back-bone of BN, is trying to portray to voters, the coalition is tainted and has actually already lost ground among the rakyat including the Malays, its traditional source of strength.


NFCHe said the frequent BN scandals plaguing its leaders including Umno’s sole woman cabinet member Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who is embroiled in the National Feedlot Council (NFC) scandal involving her husband who heads the NFC, are spurring its loss of credibility.

“If they don’t cheat (in the election), they will surely lose this time. If they cheat we will hit the streets and stop them and to install a new government,” he said in his speech during PSM’s political talk at Kampung Baru Rimba Panjang here on Saturday.

Arutchelvan also reminded that even Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had referred to the coming general election as “the mother of all elections” at the Umno annual assembly last week.

He said judging from what Muhyiddin and other Umno leaders have said so far, the coming election could also be the “dirtiest election ever” Malaysians would see and urged those who are concerned to be brave enough to go to the streets and protest.

Speaking on other issue, the PSM leader reiterated that the party would use its own symbol this time unlike in 2008. “Our party was registered via a court order soon after the last election and hence this time we will use our own symbol,” he said.

Currently PSM has two people representatives who “borrowed” the symbol of PKR in the last general election. The two are PSM chairman Dr Nasir Hashim who is state assemblyman for Kota Damansara in Selangor, and Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, the MP for Perak’s Sungai Siput.

In 2008, Jeyakumar, a popular medical doctor, created the biggest upset by defeating then MIC president S Samy Vellu by more than 1,000 votes.

PSM is understood to be eyeing at least another two state assembly seats, one each in Selangor (Semenyih) and Perak (Jelapang) at the coming general election.

On Sungai Siput seat, Arutchelvan said PSM with the support of its allies PKR-DAP-PAS is working hard not to let it slip away. Observers here said there is growing evidence that Vell Paari, a son of Samy, could be fielded by MIC there.

MIC and Samy Vellu would consider it as “sweet revenge” to recapture Sungai Siput as the large seat had always been the seat represented by MIC presidents from VT Sambanthan and Samy Vellu’s immediate predecessor, V Manickavasagam to the former president.