Syed Saddiq Disappointed That Muhyiddin Joined New Pact (WITH VIDEO)

(NST) – Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman expressed disappointment over party president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s decision to join the new Perikatan Nasional pact.

In an interview with Al Jazeera English’s “Upfront”, the former cabinet minister said he regarded Muhyiddin as a father figure.

He said Muhyiddin was one of the reasons he joined politics, but was shocked when the latter joined a new political pact which was not democratically elected by the people.

“He is like a father to me… one of the reasons why I joined politics was because of him. He was one of the persons who spoke up against global kleptocrats, who was sacked by his party (Umno) for speaking up against global kleptocrats.

“(When) I joined his party as one of the core founders, my mother was threatened, she was a teacher and she was threatened by the then government. I lost my job as a researcher and lecturer. My whole family was threatened. So much money would have been awarded to me if I had decided to join the global kleptocrats.

“What truly disappoints me is that today, my very own leader, my ‘father’, decided to open the door of the Malaysian government to the same global kleptocrats, who had (previously) threatened my family and I,” said Syed Saddiq, who is the former youth and sports minister.

Asked if he thought himselt to be a “Malay first”, similar to what Muhyiddin had uttered in 2010, Syed Saddiq said he is always a “Malaysian first”.

“I think it is not wrong for me to be proud of my race. And it is important for me to ensure, especially those from the underprivileged — coming from poor family backgrounds (myself) — deserve to be helped and assisted. Unfortunately today, the majority (of those who are underprivileged) are Malays.

“The foundation of this party (Bersatu) is to ensure that poor Malays are well taken care of.

“But most importantly, one of our founding pillars is to challenge global kleptocrats; to ensure that Malay leaders in Malaysia are known to be leaders of integrity.

“Those who can be proud to say that they are leaders for all Malaysians and can never be tainted with corruption and mismanagement and abuse of power. That’s the reason I joined this party. That’s exactly the reason I supported Tan Sri Muhyiddin, my ‘father’,” he said.

To another question, the Muar member of parliament said it was unfair to blame the King for appointing Muhyiddin as prime minister.

“I think it is unfair to blame the king. The reality is the leaders who currently claimed government came in in the wrong fashion where they presented the wrong numbers to the King.

“For an example, my party president claimed that I support him, that I signed the statutory declaration including Tun Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) and Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, so when he presented the numbers to the King, he claimed that he had 36 MPs supporting him among his party, in reality that’s not the case.”