PETALING JAYA: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) has questioned whether Pakatan Harapan is in a good position to oversee the reform agenda should it take over the federal government in GE14.

“What happens to the reformasi agenda in the aftermath of GE14? This, I think, is the even bigger picture that people who want genuine change must take into account.

“Can Pakatan, which is making a number of tactical compromises, in a good position to oversee the reform agenda, or do we need other political parties around to help push that forward?” Sungai Siput MP Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj (pic) said in a statement on Wednesday (April 4).

Dr Jeyakumar, who is one of the founding members of PSM, said Pakatan’s manifesto made no mention of local council elections and had also backed away from free education at the varsity level.

He added that ethnic-based policies also seemed to be making a comeback in that manifesto, while several economic policies had a strong “neoliberal flavour”.

Hence, he told Malaysians that if they want to see politics moving in a healthier direction, they need to ask themselves if Pakatan would be able to deliver this on its own.

He also stressed that PSM was against populist policies such as toll-free highways, lower car prices and cheaper petrol, as the nation needed to reduce its carbon footprint.

“We should use economic incentives to shift to public transport and develop more electric-powered vehicles while working on electricity generation from renewables,” he said, in reference to Pakatan’s manifesto.

Dr Jeyakumar had previously accused Pakatan of cutting PSM out of seat negotiations for GE14.

PSM had been eyeing 16 seats, but was left out of discussions and only Dr Jeyakumar was allowed to contest the Sungai Siput seat he first won in the 2008 polls, he said on Saturday (March 31).

But he has not burnt his bridges. He said his party was committed to bringing about a change in government, and admitted that only Pakatan was big enough to do it.

“We are prepared to work with them. We would be quite prepared to compromise and stand down from half the seats that we are preparing to stand in – if we are given the remainder as 1:1 contests against Barisan Nasional,” he said, adding that this can be settled through discussions.

The Pakatan Opposition coalition comprises PKR, DAP, Parti Amanah Negara and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.

He also declared that democracy was being undermined by massive political funding by business elites.

“We are keenly aware that increasingly, the richest business groups in Malaysia have great influence over the political process in the country as they fund both sides of the political divide,” he alleged.

He called for public funding for political parties to be allowed, adding that it had potential mechanisms for doing this that will enhance the people's influence.

He also suggested an increase in hourly wages, together with a 32-hour working week, to enable people to acquire a living wage for working less, saying that it should not be necessary to work 12 hours a day to make ends meet.

“All families will have work and businesses will have adequate markets to sell to,” he said.