Bersatu information chief Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan once again made an ignorant remark, claiming that the ideas of leftist parties are incompatible with Malaysia. The so-called academic Wan Saiful is failing to differentiate different political ideologies and spreading lies about leftist parties to smear and demonize his political opponents.
It wasn’t the first time Wan Saiful attacked leftist parties. In fact, Wan Saiful used to make wild accusations many times, claiming brazenly that DAP and PKR, which embrace leftist agendas, caused Bersatu to leave Pakatan Harapan, initiated the notorious Sheraton Move, and formed a failed government with BN.
The key isn’t whether DAP and PKR embrace leftist agendas, but Wan Saiful has never enunciated how PH’s leftist agendas harm the country. Wan Saiful made wild accusations out of nowhere but never made it clear how leftist agendas could be detrimental to the country’s development. On the contrary, he merely spread lies to demonize leftist agendas without basis, hoping to capitalize on the Malay conservatives’ prejudices and fear of socialism.
Every politician, who has a basic understanding of politics around the world, would know left-wing politics is well-established, and that nearly every developed country has a strong foundation of left-wing or central-left politics.
Moreover, many left-leaning or center-left parties are the ruling party in their respective countries, such as the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Australian Labor Party, and the Democratic Party in the United States.
Despite being an academic who used to lead the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), Wan Saiful continuously targeted the leftists with malicious and unscrupulous means. At the same time, his ignorant views about politics lay himself open to ridicule.
Wan Saiful couldn’t describe how the leftist agenda could harm the country because he dared not admit that the leftist core ideas and principles put emphasis on progressive politics and justice, which aimed at reducing and getting rid of inequality and unfairness in society due to market forces, as well as protecting the rights of the minorities.
Given that these values and principles are perfectly applicable in every country, Wan Saiful’s remark that leftist ideas weren’t compatible with Malaysia is completely groundless.
In the early days after Malaysia achieved independence, the second Prime Minister Tun Razak learned macroeconomic policies through leftwing politics and later proposed the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the 1970s.
The policy goal was to eradicate poverty and restructure the economy in order to balance the gap between different ethnic groups. Even though the NEP incorporated many controversial policies with elements of racial discrimination, one of the NEP’s main objectives, namely poverty eradication, was indeed introduced by the second prime minister with reference to the leftist agenda that was popular in the 1970s.
When Wan Saiful claimed that the leftist agenda wasn’t compatible with Malaysia, did he mean the NEP, which helped the ordinary Malays to a certain extent, should be negated and abolished? As a side note, Wan Saiful himself benefitted from the NEP and eventually became an academic. Therefore, when Wan Saiful tried to discredit leftist politics, he did not only show his lack of political knowledge and history but also demonstrate his utter ingratitude.
If Wan Saiful indeed has a shallow understanding of leftwing politics, the DAPSY can provide tuition to him for free to brush up on his knowledge. He is welcome to get more information from us anytime.
Given his role as an academic, I advise Wan Saiful to stop stooping so low by demonizing leftwing politics and fanning social tensions for short-term political gain.