PSM: Let people decide our fate
Malaysiakini
Oct  5, 2006
Andrew Ong

After nine years of trying, Parti Socialis Malaysia (PSM) is approaching its last avenue to be a registered political party.

At a press conference called by its pro-tem leaders in Kuala Lumpur today, PSM central committee member Dr S Jeyakumar said the party should be given a chance to provide a different perspective to Malaysian politics through socialism.

“The government should be brave and let the people decide if we are irrelevant. If they think we are talking nonsense, we would lose our deposits.

“If they are scared of us bringing up socialist issues, then (it goes to show) that something is way wrong with their policies,” he said.

PSM had been seeking formal registration with the Registrar of Societies since 1998.

Its secretary-general S Arutchelvan believed that since 1994, not a single new opposition party had been registered by the ROS.

He suggested that the fate of a political party’s registration was a political decision by the government rather than an administrative decision of the ROS.

As it is not a legally recognised party, PSM candidates have been contesting for seats under the banner of other opposition parties during the past two general elections.

New application filed

In August, the Court of Appeal rejected PSM’s application to be registered as a national level political party on the ground that it has not fulfilled the ROS’ criteria.

A fresh application was filed by PSM president Mohd Nasir Hashim in the Federal Court on Sept 11 and mention is slated for Oct 12.

In the affidavit, Nasir challenged the decision by the ROS and the home minister to only allow registration if PSM has representation in its committee from at least seven states.

He contended that there was never such a policy within the Societies Act 1966 and ROS regulations, and that such a policy was a breach of Article 10 of the Federal Constitution which guaranteed freedom of association.

The party claimed that they were only informed of the rule when they found a hand-written note on their application, purportedly by ROS officials, stating that there was not enough representatives from seven states.