SEMENYIH: Despite a crushing defeat at the May 5 national polls, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) is stronger than ever, with a growing support base of Chinese and Malay youths.

Now that polls fever has subsided, PSM secretary-general S Arutchelvan told fz.com,that growing support for the party has only emboldened them to work harder to shore up support from the young as well as leftist groups in the country eager to see the emergence of a third force in the country’s political landscape.

“PSM did not feel defeated, we feel rejuvenated.

In the next one month, I will be going to Perlis and Malacca, where we have two new Malay groups who want to join PSM,” he said.

“There is a left Malay group in Kedah which also wants to join us. There are a lot of Chinese NGOs and young Chinese people very interested in the PSM ideology.

“They feel they cannot get a concrete ideology from Pakatan (Rakyat). They want something deeper,” he added.

He said talks have already begun over increasing the party’s branches in the areas it contested in previous elections.

“Our online membership registration shows that the highest number is among the Malays,” he added.

In the 13th General Election,the party only managed to retain its Sungai Siput Parliamentary seat and suffered crushing losses in the other seats. (See graphic below)

Arutchelvan said a meeting with party heads last Friday revealed that PSM’s losses were due to a mix of factors, not solely because of multi-cornered fights in the state seats.

He said voters had chosen to disregard all the work that PSM had done in those constituencies in favour of Pakatan candidates.

“We have to acknowledge that the amount of work PSM carried out did not translate into votes,” he said.

“Our conclusion is that, there was a general wave of people wanting to change the government that did not take into account the work done. All that mattered was Pakatan winning over BN,” he added.

He illustrated this with the experience in Jelapang, where PSM candidate M Sarasvathy stood against DAP’s Teh Hock Ke and MIC’s Mokan Supramaniam.

Sarasvathy had carried out work in the constituency for the past five years, after elected DAP representative Hee Yit Foong ditched the party and became an independent.

Sarasvathy had stood in the 2008 general election as an independent candidate.

One of the projects she had worked on was the construction of a pedestrian bridge near the Pusing Secondary School in the constituency, as there were accidents involving schoolchildren after a highway was built near the school.

Sarasvathy campaigned for an overhead bridge built. She had a signature drive, brought people to Kuala Lumpur and finally RM1.5 million was allocated for the bridge, said Arutchelvan.

“On election day, people had to cross that bridge to vote at the school. She only got 43 votes out of 1,500 people in that area.

“It was shocking for us. We always thought the work we had done would have brought us votes. It’s quite sad this happened,” he added.

In general, said Arutchelvan, the Malays and Indians did not overwhelmingly vote for PSM, even in Sungai Siput, where there was a straight fight.

“In Sungai Siput, the Malay and Indian votes decreased. So we feel this is an important indicator. While we talk about election fraud, the Malay votes and Indian votes did not overwhelmingly go to Pakatan.

“Even in Semenyih, the Malay votes did not increase, even for (PKR candidate) Hamidi (A Hasan). The Malay votes I got, including Hamidi’s, were as depressing as last election’s results.

“We cannot just ignore this, we have to work harder. We can’t just talk about election fraud,” he added.

On Pakatan’s performance in the May 5 polls, Arutchelvan said the coalition had grossly underestimated the impact of prime minister Datuk Seri Najib’s Razak’s handouts in rural areas.

“We thought it didn’t work but it did have an impact to a certain extent. So Pakatan’s pledges, while attractive, did not tangibly reach the people. BN were giving a lot of things,” he said.

“There was a sense of over-confidence and arrogance (in Pakatan). Some of them were already talking about ministerial positions and who would become menteri besar of Negeri Sembilan even though they hadn’t captured power.

“They were also not united, as indicated by the seven seats where they had multiple candidates. It would never have happened in BN,” he said.

He also said there is some truth to the Chinese tsunami as a lot of overseas Chinese Malaysians  returned to vote, although it is not the main reason for Pakatan’s failure to attain Putrajaya.

“The Pakatan machinery could not penetrate rural areas. PAS also did not perform that well in rural areas.

“But the real problem in the general election is gerrymandering, where a small constituency has one seat. That needs to be resolved,” he added.

PSM is set to have its central committee meeting from June 28 to 30.

On the main agenda will be the party’s relationship with Pakatan, building its brand as a political party to improve its profile, and recruiting youths into its fold.

Arutchelvan said members have called for a review of PSM’s relationship with Pakatan, after coalition members PKR, PAS and DAP ‘bullied’ PSM by placing their own candidates in the seats PSM was contesting.

“PSM is going to write a letter to PAS and (party president Datuk Seri Abdul) Hadi Awang over what their perception is of us. Also, we are not happy with what happened in Kota Damansara, because PKR was working with PAS in Kota Damansara,” he said.

PSM members claimed that PKR members were helping in the campaign instigated by PAS Subang members in Kota Damansara, despite PAS secretary general Datuk Mustafa Ali’s orders for party members to cease campaigning after its candidate Ridzuan Ismail withdrew from the race.

Arutchelvan said PSM is friendly towards Pakatan in its struggle for change, and to show its commitment PSM member A Sivarajan and Arutchelvan would relinquish their posts as councillors in the Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) and Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) respectively.

“We also want Pakatan to be committed in implementing local government elections. They also must ensure the coalition has a common logo in the next election,” he said.

Meanwhile, PSM is supporting election watchdog Bersih’s move to set up a people’s tribunal to investigate electoral fraud.

“There were cases of electoral fraud, but I’m not sure about the extent of it. I mean people were saying there were 100,000 foreigners. I don’t believe that unless they can give evidence.

“In Semenyih, I know of two cases where people wanted to vote, but found out that others had voted in their names already,” he added.

He also said PSM needs to market itself better to resonate with its growing support.

“The feedback we received from young people is that they feel we are very bad in marketing ourselves. They say that is our weakness.

“So in this coming Congress, we are going to discuss how to boost our membership. Currently, only very serious people are joining us because they think we are a serious party, very determined.”

Arutchelvan said the main challenge for the party now is to raise its profile.

“We have always been a grassroots-based party, close to the people. I think we have our own prominent people like (KS) Bawani. But the party does not believe in marketing individuals.

“Now, we have to make the branding attractive to young people,” he added.

For more stories, go to www.fz.com, the website for freedom of expression and fairness in articulation.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 15, 2013.