Did opposition, civil society sign on for democracy or Mahathirism, PSM ask

The historical press conference called by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to unseat the prime minister only proved how weak in strength and ideas the opposition and civil society really are, Parti Socialis Malaysia said today. The socialist party secretary general A. Sivarajan questioned if these organisations consulted their members of their decision to join the former prime minister's bandwagon. "Unable to settle squabbling amongst themselves and basically running out of ideas to unseat Datuk Seri Najib Razak, they have decided to ally with any ex-dictator that made the same call. "This is the symptom of targeting the individual and not understanding the political economy this nation has been moulded into by Umno BN," Sivarajan added. He also said that any short term plan to remove only the cancerous leader but maintain rule of the same dominant party spells disaster for the future of Malaysian politics, adding that the public would continue to suffer under the same neo liberal economic policies. Yesterday, Dr Mahathir led a group of more than 50 people, including former deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former Kedah menteri besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang and Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, to sign a declaration supporting the ouster of Najib as prime minister. Sivarajan also said that Najib's administration was a continuation of Dr Mahathir's authoritarian, neo liberal legacy. As such, he further questioned if Pakatan Harapan and civil society really believed that Dr Mahathir and the coalition will allow significant structural changes to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission, police force, Election Commission and the judiciary while the BN was still in power. He also asked who was calling the shots in the coalition, and whether it was democratic in nature or dominated by Mahathirism. "PSM strongly believes that true change can only happen when a political system is replaced by another clearly alternative system. "We believe that the Umno BN legacy has to be ended immediately for the entire judiciary, executive, legislative to be overhauled not reformed," he added. – March 5, 2016.]]>