The yet-to-be-registered Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) hoped that its delegates meeting for the party's 8th national congress tomorrow will come up with a clear membership-drive strategy to increase its support throughout the country.

PSM pro tem secretary general S Arutchelvam said the topic will be extensively debated at the two-day meet in Penang as the party would like to expand its influence to other states apart from its two strongholds: Perak and Selangor.

The discussion on the topic 'Why is PSM's influence only in two states' will start with the tabling of two papers by V Selvam, a delegate from Kuala Lumpur and Suresh Kumar from Pahang.

"We are strong in Perak and Selangor where about 5,000 registered supporters but we realise there is a need for the party to build its influence in other states to develop its fundamental task in setting up a socialist system in the country," he said when contacted.

He said that the party has to re-assess its options to increase party membership without sacrificing its current requirements on membership drive.

"PSM has a strict requirement in establishing branches because we don't believe in expanding just for the sake of numbers. We want members to fully understand the party's ideologies before they decide to join us and we hate to change this. So we have to look this up."

PSM's court battle

Arutchelvan also confirmed that the party will not be discussing on the next course of action in the event the Court of Appeal dismisses its appeal against the government's decision to reject PSM's registration as a national-based political party.

"I don't think there is a need to discuss this as we have already decided that we will take the matter all the way to the Federal Court.

"We have always suspected that the court battle will be a long process and it will take time before the final outcome is known."

This is also a reason why a delegate from Selangor had tabled a resolution to have PSM registered as a Selangor-based party as suggested by Court of Appeal judge Gopal Sri Ram who was one of the three-member panel of judges who had heard the appeal on April 12.

"Of course there has been no real objection to make PSM a state-level political party but we'll see how the delegates will react to the proposed resolution."

At the appeal, the court was told that PSM's application was allegedly rejected over failure to have representatives from at least seven states on its national pro tem committee in order to register a society at the national level.

The government also claimed that it had offered PSM registration at the state level in Selangor but received no respond.

PSM's success story

Speaking further on the congress, Arutchelvam said the event would start with the opening address from the party's deputy chairperson M Sarawathy and followed by chairperson Dr Nasir Hashim.

"Dr Nasir's address is expected to touch on new strategies to develop the party's multi-racial components and the party's decision to move its headquarters from Subang Jaya to the city centre so that the party can be more effective."

He said a total of 21 resolutions has been tabled by party branches and fronts which among others include the setting up of Migrant Worker Committee, a review on the party's relationship with trade unions, and a re-assessment of PSM's election strategy.

First mooted on May 1, 1998 PSM has taken pride in fighting for the rights of the working class society especially among plantation and factory industries.

Among its success, was getting the best deals for some 25 families from Ladang Midland whose homes had to be demolished by the Selangor government for development.