PSM continues its lonely struggle.

S Thayaparan

_“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”_ - American activist Elie Wiesel

COMMENT | Recent events in Tambun, Perak have briefly shined a spotlight (again) on the work PSM does for disenfranchised Malaysians all over the country.

I never get cynical or depressed when writing about PSM because, in a country where the progressive forces have capitulated to the racial and religious agendas of the mainstream political establishment, PSM continues its lonely struggle.

What is happening to a group of Tambun farmers is the kind of corporate and political malfeasance which defines politics in this country.

The sight of PSM chairperson Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj, its committee member R Karthiges, Perak PSM Youth member P Kesavan, and a farmer identified as Ho Pon Tien, being carted away by police and then released is a reminder of how the progressive forces in this country - the force which was supposed to bring “harapan” (hope) to a certain section of the public - have completely failed the people who voted for them.

A PSM operative once told me that it does not matter if Pakatan Harapan supporters vilify them online because what is important are the issues PSM raises.

For some time now, PSM has been actively engaging or at least attempting to engage with state and federal authorities on the situation in Tambun.

What happened in Tambun, the scuffles, the bloodied face and the arrests are in reality, the culmination of bureaucratic and political indifference and not some sort of performance theatre.

What we are witnessing is a reality that mainstream progressive politics fails to acknowledge.

A PSM activist told me that people often laugh at the small protests that PSM and other activist groups organise but fail to understand that these big political parties that could mobilise mass gatherings are completely indifferent to the plight of marginalised people.

When the Lynas issue was supposedly the existential threat to this country, we had Harapan political operatives organising mass protests and using those gatherings to embarrass the government of the day.

Now that they are the government, these same weaselly political operatives have changed their tune.

This, of course, is the problem with PSM when it comes to mainstream progressive politics. They do not change their tune.

Even when PSM had one solitary seat in Parliament, the good doctor was attempting to push the same narrative as when he and PSM were in the trenches fighting for the disenfranchised.

I have this running joke with Jeyakumar that he is too nuanced for politics. People have short attention spans.

They want you to scream “kleptocracy” and then they pat you on the back. When Jeyakumar talks about corruption, he talks about the corruptive aspects of politics that democracy nurtures.

He talks about how expectations from his constituents make it harder for him to fulfil his obligations, which goes far beyond merely satisfying their pecuniary needs.

It is disheartening to read about huge crowds collecting money and food for people who are suffering injustice in another part of the world and looking at the photos of hardworking people who are toiling the land for our benefit being marginalised by the supposedly reform-minded forces in this country.

These families have a history of doing the hard, often thankless jobs of working on farms and, let us be honest, far from the democratic and societal norms that privilege a certain class of urban people.

These same class of urban people demonstrate that they really do not give a damn about families like these but then wonder why corruption and corporate greed are part of the system and look to political saviours to lead them to the promised land.

And for what? More development which more often than not turns into projects mired in corporate and political corruption.

Of course, Perikatan National is completely useless. As the opposition coalition, they could not be bothered about an issue like his.

If anything, the kind of corporate and political shenanigans when it comes to land issues in the states they govern, demonstrate which side they are on.

As Jeyakumar said in September -"This is no longer just a personal issue for farmers, it’s a food shortage problem that the entire country must face.

“Prices have already gone up. Do we want to continue destroying vegetables?

“We have already engaged the Perak state government, but they are unwilling to listen because private companies have paid for that land.”

And let’s face facts with corruption and lack of political intervention. Developers have caused numerous problems to the environment and infrastructure.

I have no idea if the Madani government just does not get it or that they do not care. What happens when the kind of ecospheres that these farmers cultivate disappears from the Malaysian landscape?

What happens when the kind of small-scale but vitally important economic security they provide to surrounding communities disappears from our landscape? It is not as if we have a utilitarian big agro-business which effectively meets our needs.

Even more shocking is that this is the parliamentary seat of the sitting prime minister and he had the goodwill of the people who supported him because they believed that he would, at the very least, understand the positions they were in.

Instead, what they get for their loyalty is harassment by the state and eviction from the land which they utilise for not only economic interests but also societal interests.

These are the kind of workers that the Madani government should value because of their contribution to society but of course, there are bigger issues which narcotise and cause divisions.

Of course, very soon all this will be forgotten. The only light at the end of the tunnel is that Malaysians will always have PSM fighting this lonely fight.

More of a pity that a large section of Malaysians does not understand that the right stuff PSM is offering, will actually save Malaysia.

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”