Sin Chew Daily

After political newbie Syed Saddiq left Bersatu, he refused to join Mahathir's new party and decided to set up his own outfit, MUDA.

All of a sudden he was made a media darling boy, a fallen star set to rise again as a bright political star. But, whether he will do something great still needs some observation.

Back in 1969, after being defeated in the general election and after the May 13 incident, Mahathir was expelled from Umno for making the daring move of criticizing Tunku for siding the Chinese. That nevertheless gave him a new chance to rise from the ashes and make a strong comeback more than a year later after Tunku bowed out of politics.

50 years on, Mahathir and Syed Saddiq have now made two very different decisions in a bid to extend their respective political lives.

Back then, the still young Mahathir opted to return to Umno and stood firm on his "Malays first" stand.

Today, Syed Saddiq chooses to form a new party that champions pluralistic politics for the young people. We have no idea whether this is just a slogan or another "marketing strategy" aimed at enticing the voters.

While the old man is still combative at such an advanced age, hence his "Pejuang" party name, the much younger man well understands the recognizes the country's multicultural reality, hence his "Malaysian United Democratic Alliance" (MUDA). As the name suggests, anyone embracing democracy can be a part of the new alliance.

Syed Saddiq is very young, in fact having very little political experience before he was recruited into the cabinet. He was fully submissive to his mentor Tun Mahathir after being made a minister. Save for this, and the pretty smiles he habitually showed in front of cameras, it was hard to pick out any slightest hint of audacious, creative and racially accommodating political philosophies in him. He was doomed to fail if he were to stay back in Pakatan and colluded with the other seasoned politicians. The fall of the PH administration has given him an opportunity to set up his new party and mount a rebirth, letting us see that there is still hope for pluralism in this country, if he gets to succeed!

He had this to say after setting up MUDA: If it is a reality that Malays support only a race-based party, young people have the obligation to reverse this kind of mentality and move forward. Politicians must not just say what people want to hear in order to please them and win their votes.

Indeed, this country has been exploited by old racist politicians for generations. Everything is fine and well until the elections when racial issues will be dug out by irresponsible politicians to win the voters' favor. Syed Saddiq said it: it's those few old politicians fighting among themselves that brought down the PH government.

Umno's Mohamed Nazri dismissed Syed Saddiq's new party as stupid. Indeed, if the new party is wholly helmed by young people, it may not stay for too long. There are old politicians with creative young minds and a whole lot of wise veteran politicians who uphold the concept of pluralism. The new outfit will have good prospects if it accommodates talented people from all ethnic backgrounds and trades.

Khairy Jamaluddin, meanwhile, has said the establishment of MUDA has sounded the alarm bell for old-fashioned political parties and it's time for them to start the change in order to stay relevant. They have to learn, and give young people the chances and space, and must never downplay the new party of Syed Saddiq.

We have grown tremendously disgusted with endless political squabbles and constantly raised racial issues.

MUDA constitutes a young force in the country's politics, and Syed Saddiq has set forth the future directions of democratic politics in the country. If he and his team would persist in their multiracialism ideals and not just flowery rhetoric, we should always give them our full backing.