PETALING JAYA, Aug 24: Former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has confirmed that he will not be joining Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s new party Pejuang.
The former PPBM Youth chief will instead form his own political party which will be multiracial and youth-centric.
“If in Thailand they can set up Future Forward, in France they can set up En Marche under Macron, I think it is timely in Malaysia to start up a movement made of young people.
“Of young technocrats, professionals, young politicians from different backgrounds to come together to ensure that the youth’s voice will dominate in Parliament and outside of Parliament, that in the end, the youth can never be taken lightly any more.
“It is timely today so that politics will never be chained by the same people, being controlled and monopolised by the same old people,” he told Channel NewsAsia while campaigning for the Pejuang candidate in Slim.
Mahathir, the former PPBM chairman, said he was setting up the new independent Malay political party as his old party’s original struggles had been cast aside.
When Mahathir first announced the party, he was joined by his son Mukhriz, Marzuki Yahya, Maszlee Malik, Amiruddin Hamzah and Shahruddin Md Salleh, while Syed Saddiq was noticeably missing.
