MUDA Is Taking Cues From Syed Saddiq
MUDA for all its bravado has played a good game – garnering significant engagement and traction even compared to the old stalwarts, PKR, DAP and Amanah. 
DAP and Amanah have truly put their backs behind MUDA, guiding the party’s candidate even as some within the coalition remain uneasy around them.
This uneasiness however is sourced from MUDA’s constant gaffes and Muda announcement that it will field the party’s state information chief Rasid Abu Bakar in Larkin, putting it on a collision course with PKR.
Despite Muda president Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman previously said the party will not contest in any Johor state seats that Opposition parties are defending.
This however is not the end of these gaffes, as even more recently Muda’s candidate for the Tenang seat, Lim Wei Jiet, as he feels that the New Economic Policy (NEP) which had been abused.
Now whether this will be accepted by voters is whole different answer – but given party President MUDA Saddiq’s own experiences with promises to voters.
His tenure as a Minister was marked with various episodes of hypocrisy and even demagoguery. Recently, he quipped that the government should not revive the National Service program as it is “wasteful”, while citing that program under his Ministry during Pakatan Harapan’s 22-month reign cost much less in comparison – despite nothing ever happened to the Youth Power initiative which cost taxpayers more than RM 50 million.
This is far cry from the almost rancorous calls for the complete abolishment of the PTPTN loans during the GE15 campaigning period.
Yet it didn’t even take a month before Saddiq backtracked on his previous stance – calling for National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) borrowers who have the means to repay their loans despite earning less than RM4,000 a month must be responsible by settling their debts.
Even fundamental values such as freedom of speech continue to be threatened, amusingly by even Syed Saddiq himself.
There were little things such controversy over a KBS circular that threatened a Perdana Fellow under his watch for openly criticising his management of Bersatu’s Youth Wing.
This is surprising given that had long expressed the need for freedom of speech and expression prior to Pakatan’s win in 2018 and this kind of scare tactics were the same things that he had spoken out against during the election campaign.
The only thing to ever came out of it was a series of graft investigations (including on Syed Saddiq himself) by the MACC!
Along with this double standard and selective behaviour, we all recall the many empty statements that did not materialise – 400 thousand jobs to be created in Johor, the abolishment of PTPTN loans, etc.
Pakatan had promised 1 million high-paying jobs by 2020, but there was nothing in the way of policy programs that would support this. It doesn’t have to be anything radical such as a guaranteed jobs program, but anything that would resemble concrete shifts towards adapting to global economic trends have been yet to be seen.
MUDA still thinks that they get to escape from tough situations by saying the “right” things – at least to his audiences – and be done with it. There are many out there who know him as what he is – and finally some of their supporters will begin to see it.
This uneasiness however is sourced from MUDA’s constant gaffes and Muda announcement that it will field the party’s state information chief Rasid Abu Bakar in Larkin, putting it on a collision course with PKR.
Despite Muda president Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman previously said the party will not contest in any Johor state seats that Opposition parties are defending.
This however is not the end of these gaffes, as even more recently Muda’s candidate for the Tenang seat, Lim Wei Jiet, as he feels that the New Economic Policy (NEP) which had been abused.
Now whether this will be accepted by voters is whole different answer – but given party President MUDA Saddiq’s own experiences with promises to voters.
His tenure as a Minister was marked with various episodes of hypocrisy and even demagoguery. Recently, he quipped that the government should not revive the National Service program as it is “wasteful”, while citing that program under his Ministry during Pakatan Harapan’s 22-month reign cost much less in comparison – despite nothing ever happened to the Youth Power initiative which cost taxpayers more than RM 50 million.
This is far cry from the almost rancorous calls for the complete abolishment of the PTPTN loans during the GE15 campaigning period.
Yet it didn’t even take a month before Saddiq backtracked on his previous stance – calling for National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) borrowers who have the means to repay their loans despite earning less than RM4,000 a month must be responsible by settling their debts.
There were little things such controversy over a KBS circular that threatened a Perdana Fellow under his watch for openly criticising his management of Bersatu’s Youth Wing.
This is surprising given that had long expressed the need for freedom of speech and expression prior to Pakatan’s win in 2018 and this kind of scare tactics were the same things that he had spoken out against during the election campaign.
The only thing to ever came out of it was a series of graft investigations (including on Syed Saddiq himself) by the MACC!
Along with this double standard and selective behaviour, we all recall the many empty statements that did not materialise – 400 thousand jobs to be created in Johor, the abolishment of PTPTN loans, etc.
Pakatan had promised 1 million high-paying jobs by 2020, but there was nothing in the way of policy programs that would support this. It doesn’t have to be anything radical such as a guaranteed jobs program, but anything that would resemble concrete shifts towards adapting to global economic trends have been yet to be seen.
MUDA still thinks that they get to escape from tough situations by saying the “right” things – at least to his audiences – and be done with it. There are many out there who know him as what he is – and finally some of their supporters will begin to see it.
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