PSM to go it alone after breakdown in talks with PKR

(FMT) – Final talks on collaboration between PSM and PKR have broken down following the parties’ failure to reach an agreement at a meeting just before Parliament was dissolved.

PSM secretary-general Sivarajan Arumugam said the party’s candidates would be announced on April 19, at which time any efforts to collaborate with Pakatan Harapan (PH) would also be put to rest.

“It will be announced at the event (on April 19), and that will be the final list,” he told FMT.

Sivarajan said the meeting before the dissolution of Parliament was held with PH chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah and PKR’s R Sivarasa.

At the meeting, he said, PSM had told Saifuddin and Sivarasa that the party would only accept a “good offer”, otherwise there was no point negotiating.

“If the offer was the same, that we get to contest Sungai Siput under the PKR banner and that is it, there would be no point for the party leadership to bring that offer back to its congress to decide.” 

PSM central committee member S Arulchelvan meanwhile said the deadline to negotiate seats with PH was over.

“They were supposed to get back to us last Saturday, but they did not. We will move ahead with naming our candidates on April 19.

“Looks like there will be no successful deal struck with PH before that. For 18 months, we have been asking them to begin negotiations with us but they have not been keen.”

Adding that PH had not gotten back to PSM following the last meeting with PKR, Arulchelvan said only the Sungai Siput seat had been discussed then.

“We told them there was no point only discussing one seat. If they were offering us more seats, then we could have discussed the matter further.

“We proposed that they give us at least one state seat in Perak, two in Selangor, and one in Kelantan and Pahang along with the two parliament seats of Sungai Siput and Cameron Highlands.

“They said they would get back to us, but so far they have not.”

Arulchelvan said PSM had even committed to giving PH an assurance in writing that if given Sungai Siput and Cameron Highlands, the party would support the opposition pact and help it form the government.

“The opposition may have a problem winning these two seats, so this is where we can help them if they allow us to contest there. We asked them not to stand there, which would gift the seats to Barisan Nasional (BN).”

He said in Sabah and Sarawak, PH had allowed parties to use their own logo.

“In that same spirit, they can do it with us as well. If you really want to win Sungai Siput, you know we have the best candidate which we agreed would support PH to form the new government. We do not see the problem there.”

PH is expected to name its candidates for GE14 on April 25.

On Feb 10, PSM announced that its candidates would contest five parliamentary seats – Batu Gajah, Hulu Langat, Cameron Highlands, Subang and Sungai Siput – and 12 state seats.

Analysts say BN stands to win in Cameron Highlands and Sungai Siput if there are three-cornered fights with PH and PSM.