By Niza Shimi
What can you say when Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) is gaining such interest that they might be a tad overstretched? There’s just not enough of them to go around. Perhaps they need to clone president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.
The audience eager to catch a glimpse of the hip young MUDA politicians at a recent dialogue were sadly disappointed at their no-show on October 22, 2022. Judging from the tweet from Azrul Mohd Khalib, CEO of Galen Centre of Health and Social Policy, MUDA was missed.
In the Twitter exchange, Azrul explained that the event was a “Presentation of the Manifesto Rakyat by the CSO Platform for Reform group. It's civil society's manifesto for GE15. MUDA said they were coming and then didn't appear. Bad form lah.”
The People’s Manifesto is a collaborative project between Gabungan Bertindak Malaysia and the CSO Platform for Reform. Apparently, the organisers also invited other political parties. People’s Manifesto coordinators are Dr Lim Chee Han and Iman Research director of programmes Badrul Hisham Ismail.
In his reply, MUDA co-founder Lim Wei Jiet replied, “Azrul, I was supposed to come. My family had a medical emergency an hour before the event, and I couldn't make it. I have informed the organisers & they have conveyed their understanding.”
It is hoped that Lim’s emergency was attended to. But MUDA needs to find a way to not disappoint when they are eagerly expected. The young party was founded on September 17, 2020, and this will be its first general election.
It must have been too last minute for MUDA to send someone else to represent Lim. Such as it is, MUDA is very happening and much sought after. At least, the MUDA president seems to attract some rowdy attention in Muar. (Malay Mail October 23, 2022)
Malay Mail reported that at the second incident several cars were damaged, while a Muda representative suffered minor injuries after he fell when a firecracker was set off outside the event venue.
Syed Saddiq is no stranger to such eager youths wanting to get his attention. Back when he was still minister of youth and sports in February 2020, he was forced to jump a fence and follow a “jalan tikus” (or back alley) to escape his “fans”.
In November 2019, the youthful minister was greeted with such intense exuberance that he suffered a soft tissue injury when a hefty blogger named Papagomo clapped his hand on the minister’s delicate shoulder.
I’m not sure what happened to the court case between Syed Saddiq and Papagomo but the incident even inspired a hilarious roti tisu Syed Saddiq versus roti kosong Papagomo meme. It is not known which version of roti made better sales.
The “delicate” Syed Saddiq often portrays himself as a tough talking macho man who raps in his Tiktok and other social media accounts. It got him noticed, for sure. He even got himself featured in an article in Time magazine. Not bad, bro!
In the article published on October 21, 2022, Time’s Chad de Guzman writes that Syed Saddiq claims to have suggested to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in a 2015 meeting about the forming of a new government to counter the United Malays National Organisation. Wow!
“Syed Saddiq remembers Mahathir calling for party reform during the dialogue. As a naturally inclined debater, Syed Saddiq countered with a radical suggestion: Why not “bring in a new government” and scrap UMNO altogether?
“I thought I was cancelled immediately because he gave me this weird look,” Syed Saddiq tells TIME.
Surely, if Syed Saddiq can plot to topple governments he can withstand a little over-enthusiastic attention. MUDA might need to clone more Syed Saddiqs as there’s too much attention and too little of him to spread around.
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