Muda to concentrate on outreach effort before talking about GE15 seat allocations

Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (left) at the Puteri Wangsa Citizens Assembly launching ceremony at Taman Mount Austin, Johor Baru.

JOHOR BARU: The Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) will focus on its 60-day outreach programme dubbed “Malaysia Maju” before talking about seat allocation for the coming 15th General Election (GE15), says its president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.

“The rakyat do not care where we are contesting. What they want to know is what our solution is to the current issues of inflation and rising living costs.

“So that is why our focus will be on completing the Malaysia Maju initiative so that we can collect each and every Malaysian's needs and aspirations for the country,” he said when met by reporters after the Puteri Wangsa Citizens Assembly launch at Taman Mount Austin here on Saturday (July 30).

He said this when asked to comment on whether seat allocation had been discussed between the opposition parties for the coming GE15.

Malaysia Maju intends to reach out to five million Malaysians of all backgrounds in order to collect their ideas and hopes, which will then be compiled into the "Muda Black Paper."

“The Muda Black Paper will be our solution for the rakyat,” he said, adding that a total of 80,000 Muda members will be involved in the collection effort.

Asked whether he would be contesting, Syed Saddiq said that the decision would be made by Muda’s Candidate Selection Committee and that it would be announced soon.

“We have recently institutionalised the committee after taking suggestions from all grassroots members."

“The committee will comprise members from the parliament chiefs, state committee, the central committee, political bureau, and presidential council.

“All of the candidates will be judged by each level of committee before being finalised at the presidential council,” he said, adding that the process will be as long as the party wants to select the best candidate possible.

The task of being an MP or assemblyman is a huge responsibility and Muda would rather take all the time it needs rather than rush to appoint a candidate, only later to make mistakes, he said.

“We do not want to select someone who might not be fit to serve the community. We have learned this from the previous Johor state election, so we wanted to do better.

“Usually, at other political parties, the president will have the final say on who gets to be the candidate, but Muda wanted to make things more transparent,” he added.

Meanwhile, Puteri Wangsa assemblyman Amira Aisya Abd Aziz said the Citizens Assembly is not something new and has been done regularly in other developed nations.

“We hope that this programme can be expanded to other state constituencies and parliament areas so that we can gather all the information and come up with the best policies that are relevant to the rakyat,” she said.