PARTI Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) information chief Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan has once again made an ignorant remark, claiming that the ideas of leftist parties are incompatible with Malaysia.
The so-called academic has failed to differentiate different political ideologies and is spreading lies about leftist parties to smear and demonise his political opponents.
This isn’t the first time Wan Saiful attacked leftist parties. In fact, Wan Saiful used to make wild accusations many times, claiming brazenly that DAP and PKR, which embrace leftist agendas, caused PPBM to leave Pakatan Harapan, initiated the notorious Sheraton Move and formed a failed Government with Barisan Nasional (BN).
Even so, Wan Saiful has never enunciated how Pakatan’s leftist agendas have harmed the country.
In making such a wild accusation out of nowhere, he did not make it clear how leftist agendas could be detrimental to the country’s development.
On the contrary, Wan Saiful merely spread lies to demonise leftist agendas without basis, hoping to capitalise on the Malay conservatives’ prejudices and fear of socialism.
Every politician who has a basic understanding of politics around the world would know that left-wing politics is well-established and that nearly every developed country has a strong foundation of left-wing or central-left politics.
Moreover, many left-leaning or center-left parties are the ruling parties in their respective countries, such as the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Australian Labor Party and the Democratic Party in the US.
Despite being an academic who used to lead the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), Wan Saiful continuously targets the leftists with malicious and unscrupulous means. At the same time, his ignorant views about politics lay him open to ridicule.
Dares not admit
Wan Saiful can’t describe how the leftist agenda could harm the country because he dares not admit that the leftist core ideas and principles put emphasis on progressive politics and justice, which aims at reducing and getting rid of inequality and unfairness in society due to market forces, as well as protecting the rights of the minorities.
Given that these values and principles are perfectly applicable in every country, Wan Saiful’s remark that leftist ideas weren’t compatible with Malaysia is completely groundless.
In the early days after Malaysia achieved independence, the second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein learned macroeconomic policies through left-wing politics and later proposed the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the 1970s.
The policy goal was to eradicate poverty and restructure the economy in order to balance the gap between different ethnic groups.
Even though the NEP incorporated many controversial policies with elements of racial discrimination, one of the NEP’s main objectives, namely poverty eradication, was indeed introduced by Razak with reference to the leftist agenda that was popular in the 1970s.
When Wan Saiful claimed that the leftist agenda wasn’t compatible with Malaysia, did he mean the NEP, which helped the ordinary Malays to a certain extent, should be negated and abolished?
As a side note, Wan Saiful himself benefitted from the NEP and eventually became an academic. Therefore, when Wan Saiful tried to discredit leftist politics, he not only showed his lack of political knowledge and history but also demonstrated his utter ingratitude.
If Wan Saiful indeed has a shallow understanding of left-wing politics, the DAP Socialist Youth (DAPSY) can provide tuition to him for free to brush up on his knowledge. He is welcome to get more information from us anytime.
Given his role as an academic, I’d advise Wan Saiful to stop stooping so low by demonising left-wing politics and fanning social tensions for short-term political gains. — Sept 27, 2022
Chiong Yoke Kong is the DAP assemblyman for Tanah Rata.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main photo credit: Utusan
