Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

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 import...

Socialism is usually defined into many kinds of ideology unnecessarily by many socialist leaders themselves as well as opponent of socialism. Such has indeed confuse many socialists, potential socialists and those who are interested in deepen their understanding on socialism. Why do we need to interpret socialism into so many kinds of ideological segment, such as Leninism, Marxism, Maoism, Trotskyism, Centre-Left, Social Democrats, Socialist Democratic, First International, Third International, Fourth International or whatsoever ? Some even claim they are more socialist then others and vice-versa. Some claim to be reformed socialist and this confuse our socialist community even more. As the result of all these differences, we could see first the Socialist, Labour and Communist Parties around the world disintegrating one by one like a domino, some of these parties are even split into two or three political parties but their names still remain as socialist or communist, with only d...

Is social democracy really working well here in Malaysia? Well, it looks like the social democracy has been used of instead. Let us check out on the European analysis here. By Shayn McCallum There are a lot of good ideas being generated among social-democratic thinkers these days and, although this article is going to be critical in many respects, of the current state of social-democracy in Europe, it is absolutely worth acknowledging the excellent work being done by progressive intellectuals on constructing a new European political economy.   The task facing social-democracy (and the European project) is, it must be acknowledged,  massive and, in attempting to move forward, it must also be admitted that there is a certain exhaustion, a sense of the weight of history, that seems to have us all dragging our feet.  Fear of repeating past mistakes, or being perceived to be doing so, is of particular concern for a movement that represents one of the ...