Until just days before the close of nominations for the November 19 snap general elections, the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan ("Alliance of Hope"/PH), led by Anwar Ibrahim, had been holding out the hope that it would allocate certain seats to the PSM under an electoral pact. But in the end no seats were made available to the PSM by PH.
This was met with outrage and dismay from many people in the progressive social movements, explains Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) deputy chairperson S. Arutchelvan (better known as Arul) in this interview about and the politics and agendas of the various parties in contention in this first election since former Barisan Nasional (BN) PM Najib Razak was sentenced to 12 years jail for corruption. Najib, his wife Rosmah Mansor and other BN politicians are still facing further charges in court for corruption and money laundering.
The United Malays National Organisation, the leading party in the BN coalition, had ruled Malaysia ever since the country gained independence in 1957 until it lost the last general election in 2018. The PH coalition won the election but a split in PH in 2020 eventually led to BN returning to government. If the BN gets a two-thirds majority in the next elections, it may be able to end the prosecution of its leaders for corruption, Arul explains.
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