Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) or Malaysian People's Party has a long and significant history. Since its formation on November 11, 1955, as Partai Rakyat Malaya (before Malaysia was established) it has undergone various kinds of trials and tribulations and experienced several ups and downs.

PRM has survived for nearly half a century largely through idealism, dedication and commitment of the core of its members to the people's struggle to achieve genuine justice, democracy, freedom, equality, welfare and unity within a new Malaysia.

Although the founder members of PRM were Malays, the membership of the party was open to all, right from the first day. A good number of non-Malays, especially Chinese later signed up as members. At present although their proportion is smaller than their Malay counterpart, and less than a third of the delegates to the 36th PRM Congress during this week-end are non-Malays, they are relatively active.

PRM could claim to be a truly multi-ethnic party not merely in terms of its composition, but also because its policies cut across ethnic lines. The party has never resorted to narrow ethnic appeals to gain support, a weakness shown by many parties especially during elections. Despite encountering problems and difficulties, we believe the future holds for multi-ethnic parties and politics.

'Merdeka' slogan

PRM inherited from the Malay Nationalist Party (MNP) the tradition of resistance against, not collaboration with, colonial power. This was extended to non-collaboration with Umno and its anti-people policies. From the beginning PRM adopted "Merdeka" as its slogan, while for many years Umno settled with "Hidup Melayu", which it is reviving again now. This reflects their different orientations.

PRM fought for true independence and stood firmly against colonialism and imperialism, for which it was accused of being pro-communist and many members were arrested. Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is almost four decades late in adopting this policy, which he has watered down with racial undertones. The essence of PRM's policy for the people is based on social justice that emphasises general welfare of the common people at large, rather than the interests of a small powerful group at the apex of society.

Three important nationalists were present during the official launch of the party, mamely Ahmad Boestamam, Ishak Haji Muhammad and Dr Burhanuddin El-Helmy, all former leaders of the Malay Nationalist Party (MNP). During British rule, after they and hundreds of genuine nationalists were detained or managed to escape to the jungles or overseas, and the MNP was proscribed, the British colonialists promoted certain aristocratic Malay colonial administrators and the conservative Umno to occupy the resulting political vacuum created.

It is interesting to note that apparently the founding fathers reached mutual understanding that Boestamam should assume leadership of PRM. Later, much according to plan, Ishak and Burhanuddin succeeded as leader of the Labour Party Malaya (LPM) and Parti Islam SeMalaya (PAS). Actually, they wanted to forge a coalition of the three parties to oppose the pro-British and pro-upper class Alliance (of Umno, MCA and MIC) then.

Strongest grouping

All three had been involved with the Putera-AMCJA, a coalition of parties which actually initiated the fight for this country's independence. But their plan for this new coalition did not succeed fully. Learning from these precedents, PRM believes that it is important for opposition parties to cooperate, and if possible unite, in a principled manner, in order to effect any meaningful change or reform.

In 1957 PRM and LPM formed the Malaysian People's Socialist Front (MPSF). After this PRM's history was closely associated with the MPSF, which soon emerged as the strongest grouping in the opposition. It won several parliamentary and state seats in two elections after Merdeka.

More important, the MPSF controlled, through the electoral process, a number of town and local councils all over the country, including Penang, Melaka and Serdang, for example. Threatened by the grassroots influence of the MPSF, the government decided to abandon local government elections. Until now, PRM has always strongly stood for an elected local government.

As indicated by its name, the MPSF embraced socialism as its ideology. As for PRM, it adopted at its inception what it called "socio-national-democracy", often referred to as "Marheinism", the indegenised form of "socialism" founded by President Sukarno.

When Boestamam was detained under the ISA, a group of young intellectuals, led by Kassim Ahmad took over the leadership. Following his release and disagreement with certain policies of the new leadership, Boestamam resigned and formed Partai Marhein. It did not last long and later he rejoined PRM.

Following a series of arrests under the ISA of large number of LPM leaders and cadres, and the banning and ransacking of many LPM branches by the police, the party decided to "close shutters" (or close down). Not long after, the MPSF was disbanded. Although there were also PRM leaders and members detained and some of its branches banned, PRM decided to continue. Nevertheless, it became more resolved in upholding human rights and opposing the ISA.

Then came the May 13 Incident in 1969 and more arrests. PRM under Kassim decided to change the party ideology to Scientific Socialism and amended the party's name to Partai Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (Malaysian People's Socialist Party). It had serious consequences. (Kassim is now in Umno).

Allegations against group

The party had already suffered severely from government repression. In fact, every president and at one time all Chinese elected to the central committee were detained. Unfortunately, this new ideological position made PRM an easier target for attack by certain government leaders and the police.

Furthermore, one result of government crackdown of the MPSF was that religion and ethnicity increasingly dominated Malaysian politics. Allegations that the party had links with unidentified "communist elements", and that some of its leaders did not believe in religion, made it more difficult for PRM to operate; in fact it lost a lot of its rural base.

In view of all this, in 1986 the party's congress in Johor Bahru formed a committee to re-examine the party ideology. Four years later, in 1990 the congress in Kuala Lumpur decided to drop the socialist tag and revert the party's name to Parti Rakyat Malaysia. (This was also the year I was elected PRM president). Instead of maintaining an ideology, the party decided to present a programme (of policies), which was improved upon and accepted in 1994 as a document under the name of "New Malaysia".

It spelt out comprehensively the party policies, which took account of the prevailing political, economic, social, and environmental changes. But it did not succeed very much to attract new members, although following the reformasi movement quite a good number of young professionals joined in. The important thing is that these policies continue to be pro-people in orientation. PRM has remained consistent with and faithful to the fundamental essence of its historical struggles.

DR SYED HUSIN ALI is the president of PRM

PRM is awaiting approval from the Registrar of Societies for its merger with Keadilan. The new entity will be called Parti Keadilan Rakyat. In view of the impending merger, PRM recently concluded what could be its last National Congress last weekend.