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Friday, July 24, 2015

PSM: Political education needed for democracy to thrive

Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj says the current lack of political intelligence has led to a fake democracy in the country.
Jeyakumar-Devaraj
KUALA LUMPUR: Political education among the people is vital in order to have a real and working democracy, said Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) central committee member Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj today.
Michael was commenting on the use of racial and religious tactics by some politicians in order to gain a political advantage among the people and added, “Ultimately a democracy becomes more democratic when the people cannot be fooled.”
He said Malaysians must be intelligent enough to recognise when politicians were using racial or religious slants instead of providing real benefits and solutions.
“So for a democracy to work and function properly, we need to educate people, otherwise demagogues who play on race and emotions will get the votes,” he said during an interview with FMT.
Michael said that rather than dwell on issues of race and religion, the people should be more concerned about policies, analyses and solutions provided by their party, as well as their party’s willingness to fight for the good of the people, not what religious grouping the party’s members comprised of or which race they represented.
“Because like now let’s say we have MIC leaders, who do talk ethnicity… they get into power, then they get their contracts, they get their datukships, they get their projects, then in what way are Indians who are living in estates, Indians who are living in squatter areas… in what way are they helped?
“So what’s the point? Yes, you talk ethnicity. It’s very powerful but then ultimately the benefit doesn’t go to the group whose votes you are fishing for, it goes to the elite again,” Michael pointed out.
He added that it was the same for the Malays, who despite the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1971 and then the National Development Policy (NDP) later, were still staring poverty in the face.
“Surely they’ll find us (PSM) more useful and more relevant to their needs as to, say… Umno which talks about Hidup Melayu but finally the allocations don’t go down to the bottom but end up somewhere else.”

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