Nik Aziz: PSM is like 'water dripping on stone'
SEMENYIH POLLS | This is the fourth time that PSM will contest for the Semenyih state seat, but the left-wing party decided to pick a young gun, Nik Aziz Afiq, instead of fielding its veteran, S Arutchelvan, who contested the seat trice.
The by-election for the Semenyih seat, which fell vacant following the death of the Pakatan Harapan incumbent Bakthiar Mohd Nor, has been fixed for March 2.
The name “Nik Aziz” may sound familiar to most Malaysians. The 25-year-old PSM candidate was born and raised in a strongly Islamic family and his father, who was the Selangor PAS secretary in the 1990s, named him after PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.
From attending an Islamic kindergarten in Bangi to the Sultan Ismail Petra International Islamic College (KIAS) in Kelantan, Nik’s educational background has always been inseparable from Islam, and he therefore naturally joined PAS.
However, he sees that after the death of Tok Guru Nik Aziz, PAS has gradually become more racist and deviated from the party’s initial direction...
SEMENYIH POLLS | This is the fourth time that PSM will contest for the Semenyih state seat, but the left-wing party decided to pick a young gun, Nik Aziz Afiq, instead of fielding its veteran, S Arutchelvan, who contested the seat trice.
The by-election for the Semenyih seat, which fell vacant following the death of the Pakatan Harapan incumbent Bakthiar Mohd Nor, has been fixed for March 2.
The name “Nik Aziz” may sound familiar to most Malaysians. The 25-year-old PSM candidate was born and raised in a strongly Islamic family and his father, who was the Selangor PAS secretary in the 1990s, named him after PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.
From attending an Islamic kindergarten in Bangi to the Sultan Ismail Petra International Islamic College (KIAS) in Kelantan, Nik’s educational background has always been inseparable from Islam, and he, therefore, naturally joined PAS.
However, he sees that after the death of Tok Guru Nik Aziz, PAS has gradually become more racist and deviated from the party’s initial direction.
Nik was later attracted by Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s concept and practice and finally, four years ago, decided to "turn left" and join the socialist party.
Bullying made Nik leave college
The process of “turning left” was painful for Nik. As he was studying in a college where most of the lecturers and students were PAS members, he suffered from bullying after his college mates found that he had become close to PSM.
At the end of the day, he decided to leave the college without completing his studies as he could not withstand the tremendous pressure from the lecturers and fellow students. He then started to earn a living in Selangor and eventually started his own massage business in Semenyih.
Nik declared his assets on the second day of election campaign, and it revealed that his monthly income is about RM1,800 and he spends less than RM400 a month for his daily expenses.
“Actually, I have not much material desire. As you can see, my handphone is worth about RM200, all I need to do is to check my WhatsApp and Facebook. I bought this watch when there was an offer, two watches for only RM50, and I bought two,” said Nik, while showing his watch to the reporter during an interview with Malaysiakini.
“If I am elected in this by-election, I will continue to work as a masseur. I believe that I can survive with my salary of a masseur, and all my allowance as an assemblyperson can be used for the operation of our constituency service centre,” he declared.
PSM opened the Semenyih service centre 11 years ago, but the socialist party has never won the seat. The office was set up on the second floor of a shop outlet. The facilities in the office look old and simple, with many papers and folders stacked in the cabinet.
Nik said that since PSM central committee member Arutchelvan has been working in Semenyih for over a decade, the number of cases that were handled by PSM has reached more than a few thousand.
'We want to create a new political culture'
“Some people may think that PSM is more like a non-governmental organisation, but what we want to create is a new political culture. Unlike other political parties, maybe we don’t have many politicians who are good in political speeches, but we prefer to prove through actual service,” Nik said.
Although there are thousands of cases handled by Semenyih PSM, these cases did not seem to be converted into votes in the last general election. PSM only garnered 1,293 votes or 2.76 percent of the votes in the four-cornered fight.
Semenyih is a Malay majority seat having 68.24 percent of Malay voters, 16.69 percent Chinese voters, 13.84 percent Indian and 1.23 percent from the other races. It used to be an Umno fortress for decades, but it was won by the Bersatu candidate for the first time in GE14.
Nik pointed out that Harapan has created a narrative of “looking at the bigger picture” in the last general election, and people concentrated their votes on Harapan in order to overthrow BN. He said this was the main reason why PSM was placed last in the four-cornered fight.
“I believe that the sentiment is different now. The BN has been overthrown, but the changes for the people have not been significant since Harapan took power.”
“We can see that Bersatu has accepted so many former Umno members and it is being criticised for becoming Umno 2.0 now. I think the rakyat want to see real change.”
Although Nik is holding the lowest academic qualifications and the youngest among the four candidates, he expressed his views confidently and spoke in a very calm manner, appearing to be more mature than his actual age.
“For me, we (PSM) are like waterdrops on the stone. Dripping water hollows out the stone, not through force but through persistence. No matter what the criticisms and perception are outside, what we have done here is undeniable,” he calmly said.
Nik Aziz will face off against BN's Zakaria Hanafi, Pakatan Harapan's Muhammad Aiman Zainali and independent candidate Kuan Chee Heng in the polls on March 2.
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