Muhyiddin: Muda is too 'muda', unstructured with few members

JOHOR POLLS | Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin said he does not mean to underestimate the youth-led party Muda but noted that the party has challenges.

"Muda is too 'muda' (young). No one can deny that. (Muda president) Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman is like my son, he was formerly with Bersatu Youth but it's okay, it is his right under our democratic system to form Muda or even ‘Tua’ (old).

"But what is certain is they do not have many members, only a few. We don't even know where are their branches and whether they have divisions. They are unstructured. They're still new.

"I don't want people to think that we are underestimating them, but it is certainly an unproven party," the former prime minister told a journalist in Kulai, Johor today.

Muda, since its formal registration in December, has recruited some 76,000 members.

However, more established parties such as Umno and even Bersatu have significantly more members.

As of last year, Bersatu had more than 560,000 members while Umno has around 3.35 million.

Muda is expected to contest in six seats during the Johor polls.

SOP too stringent

Muhyiddin, during his visit to Felda Taib Andak today, also lamented the stringent Covid-19 restrictions on campaigning.

PN chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin

He noted while there has been some relaxation compared to the Malacca polls, it was still insufficient.

For example, he said allowing ceramah to only take place at the election operations centre was impractical.

"We can't expect Johoreans from everywhere to come to the same place. People who are living far away such as in Felda settlements, we can't expect them to go there.

"If a constituency has 30,000 voters, how are we going to reach out to them?" he said.

The Pagoh MP added that with the restrictions, the campaign period of two weeks was insufficient to introduce their candidates.

"I hope they (the standard operating procedures) can be reconsidered," he said.

PN’s contribution

Earlier, Muhyiddin met with the local Felda community and shared what the PN government had done for them when he was still the prime minister.

Among others, Muhyiddin said his government had decided to forgive the loans of Felda settlers and also sought to turn Felda around.

PN is expected to announce their election candidates tomorrow.

Nomination day is fixed on Feb 26 while polling day is on March 12. - Mkini