2 PH youth leaders scoff at Muda’s ‘positive competition’ pitch

 

(From left) DAP’s Young Syefura Othman and PKR’s Adam Adli say their parties have been fielding young candidates in elections, but Amanah’s Hasnie Muda feels Muda can have an effective impact on PH.

PETALING JAYA: Two Pakatan Harapan (PH) youth leaders have told the Muda president he is wrong to insinuate that the coalition has an issue with fielding young candidates in elections.

Commenting on remarks that Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman made in an interview with FMT, DAP deputy youth chief Young Syefura Othman and PKR youth chief Adam Adli said their parties had always put forward a significant number of young candidates.

In the interview, Syed Saddiq said Muda’s inclusion in PH could trigger “positive competition” among the coalition partners to field more young and talented candidates.

He claimed that the coalition had so far reserved only a small number of seats for youths.

Young Syefura told FMT she believed DAP would increase the number of young candidates in the coming general election. She said this would be in keeping with the trend in recent state elections.

“Additional seats would also be available for the young ones to move up the ranks after the retirement of a few key leaders in the party,” she said.

She claimed that DAP did not field younger candidates just for show, saying they were given the opportunity to contest for winnable seats.

Adam said it had been a “long-standing culture” in PKR to field as many young candidates as possible.

“We have been doing this at the state and federal levels for years,” he said, adding that many PKR MPs and assemblymen today, who also held leadership positions in the party, were younger than 40.

But Amanah youth chief Hasnie Muda agreed with Syed Saddiq that Muda’s inclusion in PH would encourage other parties in the coalition to field more young candidates.

“When Muda puts out younger candidates to contest in elections, there’s no doubt other parties in PH will want to show they too have young faces,” he said.

“With that happening, it can be said that Muda will have a positive impact on PH.”

Political analyst Awang Azman Pawi said Muda would bring no benefit to PH because its inclusion would reduce the number of seats, particularly winnable ones, that were available for young candidates of the parties in the coalition.

“DAP, PKR and Amanah already have many talents who have yet to be fielded due to the lack of such seats,” he said.

Awang Azman said Muda was using the “positive competition” argument only because it did not have the necessary election machinery and grassroots support to move forward on its own.

“In the eyes of many, Muda is still seen as a strong Mahathir supporter despite not being aligned with Gerakan Tanah Air,” he said. - FMT