Johor MB's office says Hasni misquoted, did not chastise youths

Johor Menteri Besar Hasni Mohammad's office has said he was misquoted over comments he made about youths.

The office denied that Hasni had said a youth-based party was disrespectful to the elders and provided an audio recording to Malaysiakini of his comments made in Johor yesterday.

Yesterday, Bernama reported Hasni as saying that there was no need for a youth-based party in Johor in response to Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman's plan to set up such a movement.

"The voices of the young and the old should be united. It is akin to not respecting the elders if one follows a party which is specifically for the young. Ideally, the young and the old need to be together to strengthen the unity among them," he was quoted as saying.

However, according to the recording, Hasni had said: "We don't need a party specifically for youths because the youths in Parit Yaani respect the views of the elders and the elders also appreciate the youths. The young and old need to be together to strengthen the unity among them".

Hasni had made the remarks when launching the Sri Gading BN Youth machinery.

Last month, Syed Saddiq confirmed that he won't be joining former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is gathering his ousted supporters from Bersatu under a new Malay-based political party called Pejuang. 

Instead, the former Bersatu Youth chief said he planned to set up a multi-racial youth-based party, citing the examples of Future Forward in Thailand and En Marche in France.

"It is timely today that politics will never be chained by the same people - being controlled and monopolised by the same old people," he had said. - Mkini