[UPDATED] Ask Pakatan: Syed Saddiq on Muda’s admission into coalition

KUALA LUMPUR – Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman today deflected questions on the party’s admission into Pakatan Harapan (PH), saying it was best for the coalition’s leaders to speak on the matter.

“I think that question is better to be directed to Pakatan,” he said at a press conference during a Muda gathering in Bangsar South.

“I think everyone is informed of our meeting and application. So, it is best to ask them,” he added.

He also signalled that regardless of the two-year-old party’s acceptance or rejection by PH, Muda would still contest in the 15th general election.

“We are very focused on participating in the GE as a team that has the same ideologic principles,” he said to a question on whether Muda would go solo in the election.

“We understand that if Umno wants to continue dragging millions of Malaysians to voting booths (during the floods) for the sake of their greed, we will fight them,

“We will make sure that Umno’s ego will be overpowered by the power of the people,” he said, in reference to pressure from Umno for Parliament to be dissolved and GE15 to be held this year.

Syed Saddiq, who is also Muar MP and Muda’s only parliamentarian, said the party would focus on flood relief if GE15 was held this year during the monsoon season.

He said that this does not mean that the party would back down from the election.

When asked about Muda’s strong social media presence but lack of traction among the grassroots, he said the party has been directed to focus more of its groundwork and campaigns in rural areas.

“Muda has made a stance that we want to focus on lives first, and then only the GE,” said Syed Saddiq.

“With that, our preparations are to tackle the major floods, where we are in the process of finalising an audit that will be released next week to show that there’s complete accountability and transparency.

“At the same time, we are in the process of training our leaders at the parliamentary level to prepare for floods, and we will launch our flood relief squads in the near future.

“The reason why we’re focusing on this is that the general election is about power, but the floods are about lives, and that should be our focus.”

Syed Saddiq announced Muda’s intention to join PH last month. A special committee formed by the coalition to study Muda’s application has completed its work but there is as yet no announcement on Muda’s status.

Any decision to admit a new party into PH is decided by consensus among the three coalition members – PKR, DAP and Amanah. PKR has put up the strongest objections to admitting Muda, stemming from their face-off in the Larkin seat in the Johor election in March.

A memorandum was reportedly signed by state PKR youth chiefs to reject Muda’s admission into the coalition, citing multiple reasons, including claims that Muda “will add no value” to PH. – The Vibes, October 8, 2022