YESTERDAY: Syed Husin Ali won't label himself a leftist

INTERVIEW After his release, now retired PKR veteran Syed Husin Ali returned to varsity to continue teaching. Restricted by the Universities and University Colleges Act, he still was in charge of PRM’s affairs, but was less active in politics.

In 1990, Syed was elected as PRM president. As Umno infighting deepened, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah left to set up Parti Melayu Semangat 46 and under Syed's leadership, PRM decided to form a coalition with the Kelantan prince to fight against BN.

Unfortunately, the coalition failed and broke up after a few years.

The turning point of the era became evident only when the Asian financial crisis happened. Mahathir was at odds with Anwar, the then deputy prime minister, and later Anwar was detained. Reformasi was kicked off, protests were everywhere, with slogans such as ‘Mahafiraun’ and ‘Mahazalim’ being chanted in the air.

As the internal cleavage in the ruling coalition deepened, PRM, under Syed, together with DAP, PAS, and Keadilan, formed the Alternative Front to fight against BN. Although it failed to capture Putrajaya, the coalition managed to take away a high percentage of Malay votes, BN's traditional voting bank.

It was also the second time that Syed formed a political coalition with the opposition since he led PRM.

After the GE, PRM merged with Keadilan in 2003 and after much negotiation, was named PKR. Syed became the party number two and led it through a series of ups and downs:

In 2004, PKR suffered a bad loss and was left with only the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat. Just four years later, the opposition coalition broke BN's two-third majority for the first time in history. PKR went on to win five states and went on to form the political coalition ‘Pakatan Rakyat’.

Retired in an era of great change

However, Pakatan Rakyat has recently been replaced by Pakatan Harapan, the opposition coalition which has come together to topple Najib. The nation is back at the cusp of another drastic change.

After Syed stepped down as PKR deputy president in 2010, he was appointed as senator. The Dewan Negara may be seen as a "rubber stamp", he admitted, but stressed he took the job "very seriously". One instance was that the opposition tried to stop the controversial National Security Council bill, despite their insignificant number in the Upper House.

However, on the event of the NSC bill being passed in the Dewan Negara, Syed's term as senator came to an end.

Despite not being at the forefront of politics, it still occupies a lot of his time.

Commenting on the cooperation between the opposition, civil society, and Umno faction led by Mahathir, Syed concurred with the official stand of PKR:

“You have to assess who is the bigger enemy now: Najib or Mahathir? It's certainly Najib. Why is Najib the bigger enemy? Because he has the power and wealth to abuse all the institutions; in that case, he must go.

“But if Mahathir comes out with the same kind of programme, then the fight will go on; it depends on what happens after that. That's why I say it should not be on personality but about the system.

“If the people are strong enough, Mahathir will not want to practice the old thing he has practiced. The fact that he is calling everybody now shows that he has changed," he said.

Throughout decades of political involvement, Syed has witnessed and was part of almost all the political coalitions in this nation: Putera-AMCJA, Socialist Front, Gagasan Rakyat, Alternative Front, Pakatan Rakyat, and now, Pakatan Harapan.

Third force counterproductive

As the nation is experiencing a drastic political realignment, some have called for a ‘left force’ but Syed begged to differ.

Q: Do you think it's necessary to form a third force?

A: It could be possible (but) I don't see any third force coming out.

Q: After the 13th GE, people have been mentioning that.

A: But nothing has come out, isn't it?

Q: But as a scholar who studied left wing politics for years, should left forces come together and form a third force?

A: I believe that as it is now, all forces that are anti the present government, which is becoming autocratic, dictatorial, corrupt, undemocratic, should come together and overthrow it. If you have only Muslim, left, right - each having their own - there is no overall unity, then what can the socialist party do, for instance? It's so small. If it stands for election on its own ticket, I don't think it can win any (seats).

I am saying that the third force is not big enough yet; it has to unite all forces. When you unite, you cannot have everybody to agree on everything.

Not a Luddite but not tech-savvy

During the interview, Syed occasionally looked at his phone to check the time. Before the interview came to an end, I asked what model of phone he used. He replied asking which type of phone I was using.

Q:How do you see the current social media? Do you have a Facebook account?

A: I have Facebook , but I don't know how to use it. I have Twitter (and) somebody linked it for me. So when I tweet, it appears in Facebook . I don't even know how to open my own Facebook . I was told there are all kinds of dirty things said in my Facebook and I cannot do anything.

Q: But why don't you use Facebook ? It's more popular in Malaysia.

A: It's more popular in the world? I don't know. Somebody did it (open an account) for me, but I have forgotten the password. He has also forgotten the password so I cannot open. Maybe I should start another?

Q: But do you like to tweet?

A: I used to like it very much, but now I get fed up. It's a kind of discipline to write short and precise thing, 140 words (characters). It also makes you think deeply as to what to say in the best way possible. Now, I don't have much time, sometimes I just tweet once or twice in a day.

YESTERDAY: Syed Husin Ali won't label himself a leftist