REMBAU MP Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar sees the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) as a tough rival in capturing young voters, especially since the party was recently officially registered as a political party with the Registrar of Societies (RoS).
According to the former UMNO Youth chief, this is based on his personal experience as young voters did not support Barisan Nasional (BN) and UMNO in the previous general election due to the current issues at the time.
“We want to avoid this thing from happening again (in the next general election),” Khairy was reported as saying by online news portal Malaysiakini in a live-streamed interview programme entitled ‘COVID Dilemma and Politics’ yesterday (Dec 30).
“The Undi18 is a very serious phenomenon and needs to be taken seriously, especially by the Youth and Puteri wings.
“MUDA, a new youth-centric political party, will pose a serious competition to us among those aged between 18 and 30.
“The Youth and Puteri wings should get close to the young people and identify (young) icons to be fielded as candidates in the elections.”
Undi18 refers to an endeavour to lower the minimum voting age from 21 to 18 and is about empowering young people to have a say in the decision-making process to elect a government.
MUDA was formed by Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman who was the youth and sports minister during the Pakatan Harapan administration.
“We must be serious to head in that direction. Last time, we asked for more young candidates but we couldn’t get them,” Khairy went on to say.
“I look at this as a possible weakness (in UMNO) – we simply do not have enough young icons. What we have is (Paya Besar MP) Mohd Shahar Abdullah and UMNO information chief Shahril Hamdan. That’s all I can remember,” Khairy said.
“But I saw a positive development in the Melaka state polls as our young candidates received solid support from the voters,” he said, adding that candidates who are young and professionals resonated with the young voters. – Dec 31, 2021
