Undaunted by previous unexplained rejections, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) today launched a signature campaign to highlight its efforts to be registered as a legal political party in the country.

According to campaign postcards addressed to Home Affairs Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, PSM is demanding for the ministry to approve its application so that Malaysians can be given the right to decide the party's future.

PSM pro tem secretary-general S Arutchelvan ( photo ) said after being rejected twice once by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) and once by the Home Affairs Ministry without explanations, the party filed a court case against the ministry on the grounds that it had acted in bad faith by refusing to grant their application.

"Unfortunately, our case has been postponed at least four times. Now, the trial date has been set on Nov 13 but our grassroots supporters want us to do more," he said during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur.

PSM first applied to register as a political party in 1998 on the platform that it seeks to represent the interests of "exploited classes" such as farmers, factory workers and estate workers.

Settlement offer

According to Arutchelvam, Abdullah had filed an affidavit saying that the ROS decision to reject PSM's application was reasonable because the party had not filed a complete set of application documents.

As regards the rejection by the ministry, Abdullah said he had to consider issues of national security based on information provided by the police which he is unable to reveal.

Arutchelvan said the AG's office had also offered to settle the matter out of court with PSM.

"The AG's Chambers asked us to withdraw our case and said they will ask the registrar to approve our application. However, they refused to give us an undertaking of this in black and white so we are proceeding with the court case," he said.

"The government should stop hiding behind excuses of national security, or the Official Secrets Act, in refusing our application," he added.

EC should decide

PSM also called for the approval for political party registrations to be removed from the jurisdiction of the Home Affairs Ministry and be placed under the Election Commission (EC).

"The EC should determine the outcome of political party registrations as they are said to be an independent body.

"We want the people, not politicians, to decide our party's future," said PSM chairperson Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim who was also present at the press conference.

Nasir further pointed out that since 1994, a total of 23 organisations had applied to register as political parties but only two were accepted. The two are the State Reform Party Sarawak (Star) and the Malaysia Democratic Party.

"In fact, MDP submitted its application later than PSM. They got registered very quickly while we are still waiting after four years.

"In Sabah, three parties were registered within a week after the withdrawal of the Parti Bersatu Sabah from the Barisan Nasional (in 1990)," he said.

50,000 signatures

Meanwhile, Arutchelvan said PSM had fielded its first candidate during the 1999 general election under the DAP ticket.

"Our candidate Dr D Jeyakumar competed for the Sungai Siput seat, in Perak. We reduced MIC president S Samy Vellu's majority by 10,000 votes," he said.

However, he said the party wants to be able to campaign in future under its own logo as it is a right provided under Article 10 of the Federal Constitution which allows for freedom of speech, assembly and association.

Arutchelvan said the postcard campaign is expected to garner 50,000 signatures from the party's key support groups.