PARTI Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) will need to adopt a new approach in future elections should the left-leaning party want to win seats, the party’s election director said.

S. Arutchelvan, who is also party deputy chairman, however, admitted that it is still too early to decide on any political cooperation, stressing the importance of a post-mortem to study the result of the elections on Saturday.

At the six-state polls, PSM contested in Kajang, Meru, Kota Damansara and Dengkil. The party’s candidates all lost their deposits.

The losing run has continued for several elections now, with its last victory coming in the 2013 general election.

Arutchelvan, a veteran activist, told The Malaysian Insight that one of the reasons for PSM’s heavy defeat on Saturday was because voters had already set their mind to choose between Pakatan Harapan-Barisan Nasional (PH-BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN).

“People had already set their sights on PH-BN or PN, the two largest coalitions. As a third force, we couldn’t change that. In the first-past-the-post system, voters only wanted the two largest coalitions.

“We will have to conduct a post-mortem and from there we will discuss our future. We may need to form a new partnership with other parties and we also need to contest in many seats to show that we are serious in forming a government.

“In the state elections, we contested only four seats and that was not enough to form a government. In the future we may need to talk to other parties, such as Muda, Parti Bangsa Malaysia or Parti Rakyat Malaysia.

“Although this is still new, by having a larger cooperation, we will give voters an alternative, a third choice,” he said.

Arutchelvan stood as a candidate in Kajang and garnered only 2,681 votes while PH’s David Cheong gathered 54,794 votes. PN’s Allan Liew collected 20,400 votes.

Arutchelvan also predicted that the political heat in Selangor would not subside despite PH-BN forming the state government.

“Voters clearly rejected Umno in the state polls. Things won’t cool down. The temperature will go up,” he added.

Can do better in the future

Meanwhile, another PSM candidate, M. Sivaranjani, said the party has a bright future in Meru despite only getting 899 votes.

She said PSM was only a year old in the constituency, adding that neither PH or PN was strong in the area.

“We are only a year old in Meru and people were confused between PSM and PH because of our flag colour. Many thought we were part of PH. We had to explain to them that we were not.

“We will continue to open our service centre here and with hard work and determination, I believe we can deliver.

“If you look at the result, the majority is not that huge, about 2,000-something. Even though PN won in Sementa and Selat Klang, under the Kapar parliamentary seat, the difference is not so huge.

“Therefore, neither PH or PN is strong. If we can give our best to the people here, for the next five years, PSM has a bright future,” said the defeated candidate.

PH’s Mariam Abdul Rashid won Meru with 26,980 votes. PN’s Hasnizam Adham secured 23,558 votes.

Rejuvenation needed

For Universiti Teknologi Malaysia academic Dr Mazlan Ali, PSM needs a rebranding as its “socialist” tag doesn’t sit well with Malay voters.

He also said PSM won’t last long if it decides to join PH.

“PSM’s socialist ideology is different from DAP’s socialist ideology. PSM is still a pure socialist party while DAP is more centrist in a sense.

“For PSM to be accepted, they need rebranding, a rejuvenation. In my opinion they may need to change the name. If they go to Kelantan and Terengganu, they will not be able to get anything.

“Same goes for PKR in the east coast. The name plays an important part. Like Amanah, they can be accepted.”

PSM was part of Pakatan Rakyat in 2008 when it won Kota Damansara under the PKR banner in the 12th general election.

Party veteran Dr Micheal Jeyakumar Devaraj was Sungai Siput MP for two terms (2008-2013), defeating MIC stalwart, the late S. Samy Vellu.

However, since 2018, the party is no longer part of PH and their application to contest under the PH banner was rejected. – August 14, 2023.