Political realities behind PH ‘snub’ for Muda, say analysts

 

Pakatan Harapan president Anwar Ibrahim and Muda president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman at a recent meeting. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: Fundamental political reasons are likely to be the reason the youth party Muda suffered what it considers a snub by Pakatan Harapan, say some political analysts.

Chief among the analysts’ concerns is Muda’s poor electoral track record.

“Muda is a new party that has no influence,” said Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, citing Muda’s poor performance in the 2022 Johor state elections.

Muda candidates contested seven seats but won only Puteri Wangsa, a constituency that Mazlan described as “a safe Pakatan Harapan seat”.

Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara said in the 2022 general election, Muda had failed to attract its target demographic of young voters, which demonstrated that the party could not help PH.

Besides which, Azmi said the emphasis among cooperating parties would be distribution of seats.

“It’s all about seat allocation,” he said, alluding to the ongoing complexities of negotiations between PH and Barisan Nasional.

If Muda were to be given seats, it would definitely require PH or, more specifically, PKR to sacrifice their own seats, he added, because “BN will never give away its seats to Muda”.

Meanwhile, analysts also cite a lack of clarity in Muda’s political objectives.

To Mazlan, “The thoughts and idealisms of Muda’s leaders were no different compared to the youth branches of PKR and DAP.”

He also argued that Muda’s narrative was not supported by the generation in question.

Mazlan said that in the last general election the youth were more attracted to Perikatan Nasional.

He added that Muda failed to attract “the Islamic Malay youth segment” due to a perception that it supported liberal ideologies.

“PH feels that Muda has no added value,” he said.

For Syaza Shukri, an associate professor at the International Islamic University of Malaysia, PH’s hesitation was due to Muda’s “inconsistent” stance towards the unity government.

She cited Muda’s criticism of the government over the littoral combat ship (LCS) issue, when earlier this month, Muda and its president, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, blasted the government after a motion to debate changes to the LCS project was denied.

The changes included crucial factors such as the number of ships to be delivered and the total price of the project.

While acknowledging that the government had gone quiet on the issue, Syaza said the matter should have been raised by the opposition “and not a party from the government side”.

While Muda may view this as sticking to its principles, she said this is politics.

“If you cannot trust your own coalition partners, how can you work together?” - FMT