S Arutchelvan says PSM successfully defended Sungai Siput using the PKR logo in last general election due to an agreement with Anwar Ibrahim.
PETALING JAYA: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) has called on Pakatan Harapan parties to respect its resolve to contest the 14th general election (GE14) under its own logo and understand why it had used logos of others in previous polls.
Its central committee member, S Arutchelvan, said PSM was forced to “borrow” logos in the elections of 1999, 2004 and 2008 because it had been denied registration by the government.
“PSM applied to be registered as a political party on April 30, 1998 but we only managed to get our registration after 10 years in August 2008,” he said.
He said upon being registered, PSM wrote many letters seeking to work together with PH’s precursor, Pakatan Rakyat (PR), comprising PKR, DAP and PAS. It also applied to be a PR member.
“But PR never really responded and kept us in limbo until Parliament was dissolved in 2013. Thus, PSM remained a non-PR member.
“Those from Pakatan Harapan that speak today must understand this history of PSM’s relationship with the opposition coalition,” he said in a statement today.
Arutchelvan said PSM was being told by PH that it could only stand in one seat in GE14, and that too must be under the PKR logo.
“Soon the PH machinery will talk about how they were so magnanimous in allowing PSM a seat for the coming general election but PSM is supposedly being arrogant in demanding more seats,” he said.
“They will accuse us of ‘makan dedak Najib’ (getting inducement from Prime Minister Najib Razak) et cetera and (blame us) for forcing three-cornered fights.”
He said PSM had used PKR’s logo in successfully defending its Sungai Siput parliamentary seat in 2013 due to an agreement with PKR de facto head Anwar Ibrahim.
He said PSM leaders who held a meeting with Anwar at the PKR headquarters on April 13, 2013 were requested to use the PKR logo for the general election on May 5.
He claimed that Anwar had said the successful candidates could later use the PSM logo and even take their oaths as PSM representatives.
Arutchelvan said PSM was represented at that meeting by himself, its Kota Damansara state assemblyman Mohd Nasir Hashim and Sungai Siput MP Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj.
PKR ‘U-turn’ after agreeing on Semenyih
He said the PSM leaders told the meeting that the party wanted to stand again in the Semenyih and Jelapang states seats as they had done in the election of 2008.
“But Anwar said he could only commit for the 3 seats under PKR and directed us to DAP to discuss about Jelapang.
“In that meeting Anwar clearly said and appealed to us to use the PKR (logo) and after that we can use your own logo,” he said.
“I hope (PKR’s) Xavier Jayakumar and Tian Chua, who were at the meeting, can confirm these events.
“Unfortunately, in spite of those promises by Anwar, we were later denied the Semenyih seat because (PKR deputy president) Azmin Ali disagreed with Anwar’s decision to give us that seat,” he claimed.
Both Nasir and Jeyakumar then ran in their constituencies under the PKR banner, with Jeyakumar retaining Sungai Siput.
Nasir lost in Kota Damansara. He received 14,860 votes, the BN candidate 16,387 votes and PAS candidate 7,312 votes.
Arutchelvan lost in Semenyih and M Sarasvathy in Jelapang. Both contested under the PSM logo.
BN and PKR candidates had contested against Arutchelvan in Semenyih. BN and DAP went up against Sarasvathy in Jelapang.
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Sumber PSM to use own logo, tells PH critics to grasp history