PSM reminds Malaysians their Malay, Chinese or Indian neighbours are not the enemy...

SHAH ALAM - Race-based politics have held Malaysia back for over 60 years and has not contributed anything positive to the country, said Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) Youth Secretary Gandipan Nantha Gopalan.

Gandipan pointed out Malaysians, in general, were still suffering from low minimum wage and higher unemployment rate, among many other issues even after decades of race-based politics in the country.

"PSM offers an alternative view, we know who our enemy is, and it is not another race but a political group that snatched away the power from employees,'' he said, adding that working towards realising a country free from the shackles of race-based politics is what PSM have been working towards.

Pointing to PSM's struggle to work for the common man, Gandipan also stated that his party will only contest in areas where they carried out work and engaged with the community extensively.

"Why do we practice such policy? Its because we believe those who have worked in a particular constituency for some time are well aware of the local issues better.

"That is why we often contest in a small amount of seats since we are relatively a small party but we are growing exponentially in the past three years hopefully we can contest in more seats in the future," he said to Sinar Daily.

While PSM has been a vocal voice, fighting for minimum wage, housing rights, job security and many other socio-economic issues, the party has recently launched the Pemulihan Nasional (National Recovery) campaign in September of last year.

Gandipan stated that the party plans to address long-standing structural issues in the country through the campaign.

"Through this campaign, we would like to fight for social security, job guarantee scheme, housing as human rights and also other policies without looking at race and religion," he said.

With poor policies in place where would Malaysia be in 5 years, PSM ask

Future generations will likely carry the nation's economic burden if salaries and education schemes remain the same, Gandipan said, urging the government to reshape a better education policy so that the youth can contribute back to the economy.

"People who completed their degree or masters are not able to put up their knowledge in the relatable field and ended up in low skilled jobs.

"This phenomenon happens often because there is a serious mismatched between the education system and the job market since the government is not actively participating in creating jobs and shaping the educational system," he said.

These mismatched government policies are among the main reason for high unemployment rates among youths in Malaysia, said Gandipan.

As a means to mitigate this issue, Gandipan has urged the government to come up with Jobs Guarantee Scheme and identify industries to invest in and create better job opportunities that could later provide meaningful jobs and higher wages to workers.

There is also an urgent need to upgrade infrastructure in rural and semi-rural settlements, where the opportunity to do so could also provide jobs for the youth in those areas, said Gandipan.

"In rural and semi-urban areas, there is an urgent need to upgrade the infrastructure of schools and healthcare buildings, so these are the things PSM are proposing for the government to focus on," he said to Sinar Daily.

Gandipan also said every generation faces its own unique problems that were presented by capitalism.

"We have capitalism as a ruling party in Malaysia so we think that we need an alternative policy that works for the masses and the youths are always on the receiving end because our wages has been stagnant for a long time."

"We also did not address the minimum salary of RM2,500 for fresh graduates for the past 10 years yet we have seen how the prices of goods have risen and ownership of basic needs such as housing is becoming more challenging, '' he said.

Youth unemployment in Malaysia reached 12.5 percent in 2020, up from 10.5% in 2019 and 10.7-10.9% in 2015-2018.

Youths aged 15-24 of all educational levels endured the widest decline in mean salary, registering a -13.7 percent change from RM1,793 in 2019 to RM1,547 in 2020. The next most affected is the 25-34 age group with a -12.9 percent change, from RM2,916 to RM2,538