PRM, a third political force in the making?
Priscilla Prasena, FMT
Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) is being revamped and would appear as a third force in the Malaysian politics with an ex-DAP veteran driving it in Selangor.
Deliganu Alagan, 66, said he will be focusing on Klang and other regions in Selangor while reinventing the party to a true socialist concept, which was being championed by its president Dr Rohana Ariffin.
Commenting on the need for a third force in the Malaysian politics he said both Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and the ruling coalition (BN) had failed to look into the welfare of the people and each of them were protecting their interest.
“It is because both the political parties have failed that we need a third force to protect the interest of the people,” Deliganu told FMT.
Deliganu said it was time for the country to have a third political force and about 25 ex-DAP members would now join him in this party to serve the public better.
He added that the main agenda of the party would be looking into building low-cost houses for the low to middle income people as well as to serve the interest of the poverty stricken residents of Malaysia.
“We would want to see poverty eradicated and the wealth of the country equally distributed to every citizen of the country,” he added.
Deliganu said the party would be also looking into the homeless issues of the people especially with the rising homeless issues, recently.
Speaking to FMT, he said as a socialist, PRM had been fighting for all issues affecting all races, however Indians in the country were the worst affected by poverty.
Ahmad Boestamam, an activist with the leftist Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) movement, founded PRM in 1955. The party was renamed Malaysian People’s Socialist Party (PRM) and it officially adopted scientific socialism as its ideology. Despite the re-orientation of the party, the post-1969 political scenario meant that the party remained in the sideline.
Following the 1999 general elections, PKR began to explore the possibility of a merger between the two parties. However, the merger was delayed by the lengthy negotiations between the two parties. The two parties only officially merged on Aug 3, 2003, while PRM contested in the 2004 general election as PKR as the merger had yet to be approved by the authorities.
It was believed that due to the growing tension between some former PRM members, who were now in PKR, with the party’s leadership was due to an alleged growing influence of neo-conservatism.
These members were not comfortable with the merger and found a rallying point to express their dissent, particularly towards the former leadership who negotiated the merger.
Despite its de-registration on April 17, 2005, former PRM youth leader Hassan Karim elected a new executive committee to resume its political activities.
