Malaysia

March 1, 2010 - Malaysiakini.
The government’s full-paying patient (FPP) scheme has again come under fire from the Coalition Against Health Service Privatisation, which held simultaneous pickets outside four public hospitals nationwide.

In the Klang Valley, short pickets by small groups were held at the Serdang and Sungai Buloh hospitals.

February 16, 2010 -- From the website of the Socialist Party of Malaysia.
Barely 48 hours after the Federal Court had affirmed Zambry Abd Kadir as Perak menteri besar (state chief executive) on Feb 9, a demolition team from the Land Office of Larut Matang and Selama descended on a 15-hectare plot farmed by squatters in the Air Kuning area, on the southern rim of Taiping.

[Pictured:Socialist Party of Malaysia MP Jeyakumar Devaraj addresses a rally against the free trade agreement between Malaysia and the United States.]
By Jeyakumar Devaraj
February 11, 2010 -- Malaysia has only known one ruling coalition in the past 52 years since independence. But the result of the March 2008 election has led to rising hope among many Malaysians that an enormous change might be around the corner – a two-party system under which the people are free to choose between two coalitions, which are both capable of governing the country.

Simon Butler, Green Left Weekly
Pictured: Sivaranjani Manickam
For decades, there was no socialist party of significance in Malaysia. But in 2009, the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) made some impressive gains. The party more than doubled in size and had members elected to state and national parliament for the first time.
PSM activist Sivaranjani Manickam attended the Socialist Alliance national conference, held in Sydney in early January. She told Green Left Weekly that the recent growth in support for the party helped force the Malaysian government to finally grant it legal recognition after a 10-year battle.

Statement by Socialist Party of Malaysia central committee
PSM condemns attacks on churches! Najib and Hishamuddin should take full responsibility!
January 8, 2010 -- The Parti Socialist Malaysia (PSM) is shocked to learn that three churches have been attacked in the last 12 hours in the Klang Valley – the Assumption Church in Jalan Templer, Petaling Jaya, the Life Chapel in Section 17, Petaling Jaya, and the Metro Tabernacle Church in Desa Melawati, Kuala Lumpur. The three-storey Metro Tabernacle church in Desa Melawati, part of the Assemblies of God movement, was set ablaze in the attack which took place around midnight.

Statement by the Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM), November 27

GST – Goods and Services Tax if implemented will not be a problem at all for the 6% richest in the country, but it is certainly too much for the 70% poor and the rest!

Paul Benedek, Kuala Lumpur
20 November 2009, Green Left Weekly

More than 200 activists, including a large proportion of youth and women, packed Kuala Lumpur’s Chinese Assembly Hall for the first day of Socialism 2009, an annual conference organised by the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM).

The focus was an analysis of “the two-party system in Malaysia” after the “electoral tsunami” in March last year. With the opposition Peoples Alliance (PR) winning five out of 13 states, it raised the possibility of an opposition group taking power in Malaysia for the first time in 50 years.

Report from the Socialist Party of Malaysia, www.parti-sosialis.org.
KUALA LUMPUR – Socialism 2009 was for the first time held in Kuala Lumpur after being held for the last four years in New Era College, Kajang. The event based on feedback from the participants was a huge success. Around 200 people packed the Selangor Chinese Hall Auditorium. A number of people have to sit in the stairways as all the chairs were occupied.

All the panel discussion was interesting as the topic of 2 party system seems to be relevant and crucial in determining the way forward for Malaysian politics. None of the session could end with enough time as there were many issues to be debated.

By Peter Boyle
Police detained dozens of opposition activists, lawyers and legislators May 6-7 as protests erupted around the ruling National Front (Barisan Nasional - BN) removal of the opposition People’s Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat) state government of Perak, one of five states won by the opposition in the March 2008 general elections. Among those arrested was Dr D. Jeyakumar, the federal MP of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM).
Earlier this year, the BN induced three opposition state assembly members to turn "independent" and support the BN to take over as state government. May 7 was the first day of sitting of the state assembly since this power grab. The opposition has called for new elections to the state assembly and polls indicate the opposition could win a bigger majority if new elections were called.

By Peter Boyle
“As present deputy PM Najib Razak plans to takeover the prime ministership from Abdullah Badawi on April 2, there seems to be a pattern of growing repression”, warns Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) secretary general S. Arutchelvan.
“The dark ages of [former PM] Mahathir are returning with incidents such as the one-year suspension from parliament of opposition MP Gobind Singh Deo (for calling Najib a murderer), the three-month ban of two popular opposition newspapers, recent police attacks on opposition public assemblies, the referring sodomy charges against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to the High Court, the setting up of a new “anti-corruption agency” to investigate opposition leaders and the rejection of the PSM's party symbol [a red clenched fist].
“Harakah is a popular twice-weekly newspaper produced by the Islamic Party (PAS). During the Mahathir era there was a clamp down on this paper but during Badawi this was relaxed. Now its banned again. The other banned paper is Suara Keadilan of the Justice Party (PKR).”
On March 23, riot police used water cannon and tear gas to attack a 5000-strong public meeting of PKR supporters in Sungei Patani.
PSM deputy chairperson M. Saraswathy says that the increasingly unpopular Basiran Nasional (BN) government “resorting to more dirty, more lawless and more devious means to hold onto power at any cost”.