Muda denies forging memberships, will rectify 'hiccups'

The newly-registered Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) has been accused of signing people up as members without consent.

However, the youth-based party denied falsifying membership, saying instead that it was a hiccup due to possible abuse of its "simple" registration process.

The issue cropped up after PKR member, Bong Jenn Fonng, received an email from Muda last Saturday, saying that his party membership had been approved despite never having applied.

“It is quite shocking when I saw the email because I never contacted or approached any Muda members

“I never found out what their application form was and I am not sure how they got my personal details,” he told Malaysiakini.

Bong questioned whether the party has been registering members without consent in order to pad up membership numbers.

He said his membership number indicated more than 30,000 people had joined the party.

Bong does not hold any party position but occasionally writes commentaries for local Chinese dailies.

When contacted, Muda secretary-general Amira Aisya admitted to flaws in the membership registration process but denied any ill intent or malice by the party.

She said that at present the registration process was very simple and not foolproof, leaving the possibility that it could be misused to sign people up without consent.

“These hiccups happen in all parties, even with established ones. What’s important is to rectify as soon as possible.

“We will send another round of emails to everyone on our list to get their official consents. We will pull out the names of those who did not consent from the list,” she said.

She said the party will update the actual membership numbers once it has rectified errors, and assured that they won't falsify numbers.

“Regardless of whether or not there’s a significant change to the number, we will not adjust the numbers to trick the people.

"We always advocate for transparency and this includes our membership strength,” she said.

Muda was founded by Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, a former youth and sports minister for 22-months under the Harapan administration.

The party faced a long wait before it was registered, due to objections from Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin.

However, the party won a legal challenge against the government last December, after which the ministry was compelled to register them as a party.

Muda had previously tried to contest under Pakatan Harapan during the Malacca state election but backed out over PKR and Amanah's decision to field two party hoppers from Umno.

The party is now forging an alliance with Warisan, and is also linked with Pejuang which is led by Saddiq's former mentor Dr Mahathir Mohamad. - Mkini