Permatang Pauh By-Election, PRM and Left Coalition - An Analysis
By Yeong Kam Loong
Looking at the recent formation of Left Coalition and the surface of internal issue of Parti Rakyat Malaysia during Permatang Pauh by-election, there's some observation, analysis and strategy that i hope that can be helpful to the Party and Coalition.
Analysis:
The recent formation of Left Coalition has stirred considerable amount of curiosity from the public who view it as a 'budding' third power in the political landscape and what it can deliver.
However, the recent Permatang Pauh by-election has somehow created minor negative perception on PRM from the public.
A chinese newspaper commentary (some might have already seen it) had listed 3 important points:
1. The internal conflict between Penang Branch and Central Committee in candidate placement
2. The difference of stance on Hudud between candidate and the party.
3. This event created doubts from the public on PRM's principle as a political party, and eventually the Left Coalition.
This is important as it gives an impression that the Left Coalition will just repeat the same drama of internal conflicts from PR once in power. (but the party internal conflict already happened even before gaining power)
However, it's possible to take this disadvantage as an opportunity with the following self-analysis that might seemed a little bit naive but possible:
Damage control by PRM by informing the public through press and media about where went wrong, whether and how the internal conflict is resolved after its done. Reiteration of PRM's stance on hudud might be needed if necessary. (this wholly depends on the decision from PRM whether to do it or not) and it does has risks that it could further deepen internal party conflict if failed.- But who are we to tell other party what should they do?
The reason is that it always catches public attention when a political party being transparent about its mistakes and seek ways to rectify it. It would give an impression on how the party will govern when given mandate.
The keyword is transparency, or else public will just only see the conflict, when a party/coalition tries to solve major internal conflict within itself(without informing public what is happening in behind the scene) and end up eventually putting the blame game on each other through media when failed, then we see them suddenly holding hands during important events like it was solved but its not. As you can see for yourself. Public needs to know how conflict is solved when they voted their MPs.
Strategy:
The public sentiment on the current political landscape is no hope on BN, PR starts being inconsistent when given power long enough. Some political apathy is there, but time is on our side until the next election but the PSM and Left Coalition needs to show the voters what it can deliver.
Currently the public are curious but having hard time to have deeper understanding on what is Left and what is Socialism. Most of the public who attend socialism related events organized by PSM already know what socialism is, that it means the ideology have yet to reach the everyday people. The rest are curious, but not enough (as a bystander).
First step would be generate further curiosity from the public, and it means publicity, but not cheap publicity. One of it could becollaborating/engaging other socialism-minded MPs from different party on their pursue who are not getting their social/environmental conscious message accepted by their own party (real case example: a MP at Penang who is concerned about the current state of development). It sort of forms a mutual bond, the MP gets help and more voices and support and might eventually joins PSM through mutual understanding, while PSM gets publicity. But it also means making enemy with the current Penang State Government and eventually PR. It depends how far the party would like to stretch in executing its socialist principles. The risk is that this walks on the thin line of political morality and party integrity, which highly dependent on who to engage and the approach. Done wrong, public will think the party is trying to 'steal' other MPs from another party for its political agenda. There's always other ways as well which is safer that you can think of.
When more public gets curious and starts to attend Left events, some elements need to be added to the current public engagement strategy of education (seminars, conferences), aid and protests to stimulate the public and enable them to connect the dots between socialism and the protest and the bigger picture. Because socialism is a heavy topic which is hard to digest and needs quite some time to understand, considering they have been living under Capitalism since they were born. Maybe there's something we can learn from the Occupy Wall Street movement on in terms of public engagement.
Next would be to show what can be delivered from the Left Coalition to the public. Alternative policy making,sustainable community development projects, smartphone apps (Democracy OS) or whatever, it's up to the creativity from comrades. This is to convince the people that the party and coalition is ready to handle the technicality of governance once given mandate. All those methods need technical experts from various backgrounds.
One of the reason that Labor Party in UK lost in recent election is under the public perception that the party will not be able to handle the economic development aspects of the country well as the current Conservatives. But if we're talking about socialism, we have to be clear to the public that to what extent socialism is going to be implemented in the country, why, how it's done and the challenges.
Looking at the recent formation of Left Coalition and the surface of internal issue of Parti Rakyat Malaysia during Permatang Pauh by-election, there's some observation, analysis and strategy that i hope that can be helpful to the Party and Coalition.
Analysis:
The recent formation of Left Coalition has stirred considerable amount of curiosity from the public who view it as a 'budding' third power in the political landscape and what it can deliver.
However, the recent Permatang Pauh by-election has somehow created minor negative perception on PRM from the public.
A chinese newspaper commentary (some might have already seen it) had listed 3 important points:
1. The internal conflict between Penang Branch and Central Committee in candidate placement
2. The difference of stance on Hudud between candidate and the party.
3. This event created doubts from the public on PRM's principle as a political party, and eventually the Left Coalition.
This is important as it gives an impression that the Left Coalition will just repeat the same drama of internal conflicts from PR once in power. (but the party internal conflict already happened even before gaining power)
However, it's possible to take this disadvantage as an opportunity with the following self-analysis that might seemed a little bit naive but possible:
Damage control by PRM by informing the public through press and media about where went wrong, whether and how the internal conflict is resolved after its done. Reiteration of PRM's stance on hudud might be needed if necessary. (this wholly depends on the decision from PRM whether to do it or not) and it does has risks that it could further deepen internal party conflict if failed.- But who are we to tell other party what should they do?
The reason is that it always catches public attention when a political party being transparent about its mistakes and seek ways to rectify it. It would give an impression on how the party will govern when given mandate.
The keyword is transparency, or else public will just only see the conflict, when a party/coalition tries to solve major internal conflict within itself(without informing public what is happening in behind the scene) and end up eventually putting the blame game on each other through media when failed, then we see them suddenly holding hands during important events like it was solved but its not. As you can see for yourself. Public needs to know how conflict is solved when they voted their MPs.
Strategy:
The public sentiment on the current political landscape is no hope on BN, PR starts being inconsistent when given power long enough. Some political apathy is there, but time is on our side until the next election but the PSM and Left Coalition needs to show the voters what it can deliver.
Currently the public are curious but having hard time to have deeper understanding on what is Left and what is Socialism. Most of the public who attend socialism related events organized by PSM already know what socialism is, that it means the ideology have yet to reach the everyday people. The rest are curious, but not enough (as a bystander).
First step would be generate further curiosity from the public, and it means publicity, but not cheap publicity. One of it could becollaborating/engaging other socialism-minded MPs from different party on their pursue who are not getting their social/environmental conscious message accepted by their own party (real case example: a MP at Penang who is concerned about the current state of development). It sort of forms a mutual bond, the MP gets help and more voices and support and might eventually joins PSM through mutual understanding, while PSM gets publicity. But it also means making enemy with the current Penang State Government and eventually PR. It depends how far the party would like to stretch in executing its socialist principles. The risk is that this walks on the thin line of political morality and party integrity, which highly dependent on who to engage and the approach. Done wrong, public will think the party is trying to 'steal' other MPs from another party for its political agenda. There's always other ways as well which is safer that you can think of.
When more public gets curious and starts to attend Left events, some elements need to be added to the current public engagement strategy of education (seminars, conferences), aid and protests to stimulate the public and enable them to connect the dots between socialism and the protest and the bigger picture. Because socialism is a heavy topic which is hard to digest and needs quite some time to understand, considering they have been living under Capitalism since they were born. Maybe there's something we can learn from the Occupy Wall Street movement on in terms of public engagement.
Next would be to show what can be delivered from the Left Coalition to the public. Alternative policy making,sustainable community development projects, smartphone apps (Democracy OS) or whatever, it's up to the creativity from comrades. This is to convince the people that the party and coalition is ready to handle the technicality of governance once given mandate. All those methods need technical experts from various backgrounds.
One of the reason that Labor Party in UK lost in recent election is under the public perception that the party will not be able to handle the economic development aspects of the country well as the current Conservatives. But if we're talking about socialism, we have to be clear to the public that to what extent socialism is going to be implemented in the country, why, how it's done and the challenges.
Sdr Yeong Kam Loong is a member of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)
