Detractors unimpressed Syed Saddiq is launching 2nd book despite his short political journey

“POLITICIANS write books of their rise and fall at their golden age and after gaining recognition or success. What is there to shout about when it’s about one single party (MUDA) whereby all the candidates lost in the (six) state elections (on Aug 12, 2023). Better for you to fill up your flood audit report”.

Such was the instant reaction by netizen Amer Hamzah (@amer7211) to former MUDA president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s tweet that he is on the verge of launching his latest book “Jalan Tegak” (literally “Straight Path”) next month during a book festival (could be the Kuala Lumpur International Book Festival slated for May 24 to June 2).

“Jalan Tegak” will be the Muar MP’s second book after the 106-page “Becoming an Agent of Change” which was published on Jan 1, 2021 – some 10 months after the Sheraton Move conspiracy which brought down the then ‘full-fledge’ Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.

“For two years I went through the process of drafting, writing and editing to translate my 30 years of ups and downs in one book,” Syed Saddiq had penned on the X platform.

“A lot of things had happened in my life over the past two years. Some have turned from friends to enemies. There are also those who (still) fight alongside you. I shall tell everything in this book.

“It’s more than 300 pages long and took multiple rounds of editing and summarising ”

The 32-year-old MUDA founding member who was in recent times convicted of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and money laundering by the Kuala Lumpur High Court admitted that he has made his fair share of mistakes in life and wished to share them “with the hope that they teach us a valuable lesson to grow stronger and wiser”.

“For sure, life experience teaches me to walk a STRAIGHT PATH. God willing, it will be launched next month during the book fair.”

However, Syed Saddiq’s sharing of his gearing up to launch his second book in three years was somehow greeted with insults instead of compliments from netizens, presumably stemming from his walking out of the unity government to be “a third force” soon after he was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, a RM10 mil fine and two strokes of the cane.

Apart from the above comment from Amer Hamzah, few netizens also cheekily reminded the youngest federal minister in Malaysian history to incorporate a chapter of his experience of getting whipped for he is also the first MP to be sentenced to whipping.

- Focus Malaysia