SO the very much seen as two-time premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s protégé Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman who is the co-founder and president of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) will be contesting in the forthcoming 15th General Election after all to defend his home turf.
This lays to rest mounting speculation that incumbent Muar MP would take a back seat “to clear his name” – like what current PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli did in the run-up to the previous national poll in May 2018 – pending his court case.
Recall that the former youth and sports minister had on Oct 28 been ordered to enter his defence for all four charges in a criminal trial involving more than RM1 mil linked to Bersatu’s youth wing, Angkatan Bersatu Anak Muda (Armada).
He has vowed to fight his corruption charges, saying that he had full faith in the courts and judges to clear his name. He further claimed that the charges came after he refused to support the Perikatan Nasional (PN) Government.
Last night (Nov 2), MUDA’s deputy president Amira Aisya Abd Aziz who is also the party’s election director described Syed Saddiq as the best man for the job to defend the Muar parliamentary seat.
In the 14th General Election (GE14), Syed Saddiq who contested the parliamentary seat under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) ticket during which he was the Bersatu Youth chief defeated Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Datuk Seri Razali Ibrahim and Abdul Aziz Talib from PAS.
He polled 22,341 votes compared with Razali’s 15,388 while Abdul Aziz lost his deposit after collecting 4,354 votes (candidates must obtain at least one-eighth or 12.5% of the total votes counted to keep their deposits).
For the GE15, Syed Saddiq will be facing BN’s Helmy Abd Latif (from UMNO) and Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Abdullah Husin (from PAS).
In addition to the Muar parliamentary seat, MUDA had earlier announced four other candidates who will be contesting using its logo, namely Danial Abdul Majeed (Kepala Batas); Siti Rahayu Baharin (Tanjong Karang); Lim Wei Jiet (Tanjung Piai); and Shahrizal Denci (Kota Marudu).
Among criticism levelled at Syed Saddiq include why a politician whose principles are a suspect is given winnable seats which PH contenders have a better chance of winning because they belong to much more established parties like PKR and DAP.
Moreover, MUDA is pretty much untested although it claimed to have the youth vote on its side.
“Has MUDA not thought for a moment that PH parties have youth wings themselves? MUDA does not bring anything to the table for PH and it seems that there are other reasons why PH, namely DAP is keen to engage and support Syed Saddiq and MUDA,” added a commentator on Malaysiakini. – Nov 3, 2022
