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MUDA is holding its first-ever party elections on 14th March 2026, with 31 candidates contesting seats on the Central Executive Committee. But with founding member Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s decision not to contest, what will these elections reveal about MUDA’s identity, future leadership, and its political direction heading into GE16. On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Zaidel Baharuddin, Vice President of MUDA.
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00:10Hi, welcome back to Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris. Let's continue our conversation about
00:15Muda's first party polls, which will be held on the 14th of March. And the question as to
00:21whether they are still a movement party or becoming something more of a conventional
00:26political organisation. Joining me to discuss this further is Zaidal Baharuddin, who is the
00:31Vice President of Muda. Zaidal, thank you so much for being on the show with me today. So
00:36I think it's been about, was it five, six years now that Muda has been part of Malaysia's
00:43political landscape. How would you describe the current state of Muda as a party today?
00:51Well, right now, as you know, and as what has happened a few years ago, we've executed the
00:57Madani Coalition. And right now, as you can see, based on the sole representative that
01:02we have in parliament, right now we are one of the opposition parties. So right now what
01:08we're trying to do, and that's what we're planning to do in the future, is to fill in
01:12the vacuum that is currently what we identify in Malaysia, which is there is a lack of an
01:20effective opposition right now. As you can see, there is quite a squabbling within Perikatan
01:26National, with Hamtah already leaving or was ousted in Bersatu. They're not sure who's the
01:33Prime Minister candidate and things like that. But at the same time, there's multiple issues
01:37that's going on as well, ranging from the challenges that just happened recently in regards to oil
01:43future oil prices, certain policies that people are unhappy, especially in regards to the standard
01:49one entry level that goes up to six years old rather than seven years old. And even with one
01:55member of parliament, we've only had one member of parliament, when it comes to being an effective
01:59opposition, especially when talking about policies, when talking about laws, we somehow get the time
02:06and we're planning to add in more, if God willing, and if the voters are willing. Imagine with only
02:12one MP of what the traction that we get, we have more. I think what Malaysia needs other than a
02:17credible government or an effective government, it also needs a very effective opposition. So that's
02:23what we're trying to do right now. That's the industry where we're in. So that this one MP, of course,
02:27is Saeed Sadiq. And I think Muda has been frequently associated with Saeed Sadiq. But the party has
02:34a wider leadership bench, which I think a lot of people don't give the due recognition to. How would
02:42you respond to the people who say that Muda's identity cannot be disentangled from the personality
02:50of Saeed Sadiq that has been defined by him, as opposed to by the policies and the work that Muda
02:58puts
02:59up? The way I see is that is something that we need to work on too. And I don't blame
03:03all critics if
03:04they say it that way. And, you know, facts do matter. And the fact is that he founded the party.
03:09He is the one who founded it. That's the reason why most of us join anyway. So, you know, that
03:14is
03:14the reality and truth that we have to accept it. However, most of us take this as a means of
03:19a
03:20positive criticism. It means that other leaders need to work harder, that we need to garner the
03:25attention, that we need to fight for more electoral seats and get ourselves in parliament, and that we have
03:31to be as good as him, if not better, in regards to coming out with statements, short videos that
03:36is more relevant, not just to the younger voters, because Muda's open to all ages, that people can
03:41relate and reverberate to. And there are some of it. One of the things that maybe there's a slight
03:48difficulty and maybe people often forgot about this is that while the party does not limit itself
03:53to a certain age group, most of the leaders are just starting out with their lives. They are in their
03:5830s, they are in their 20s. And so, when balancing between Korea and also political movement, and
04:05especially in Malaysia, where there are political ramifications in your career-wise, so that
04:10is a bit of a challenge, but we'll take it with gusto. And so, one of the things that we're
04:14trying to do is that, again, I want to repeat, being an effective opposition, is that for us,
04:20being an effective opposition is not to go against everything that the government does.
04:23Some of the good things we do support. If the government does something right, we do
04:27applaud about it. For example, right, we actually supported the two-year term limit for Prime
04:35Minister, which we think is good. Anything that involves institutional reforms by the government
04:41is something that we applaud and support. So, I think the Malay term is that kita tak bangkang
04:45semata-mata bangkang. I think that's the part of it. And on your question on that, we'll take
04:51it as something that we have to face and work hard on it. And we hope with the new batch
04:57of leaders that is coming up in the upcoming party elections, we get to see more talent coming
05:01across through the space. And we hope Awani would give these young folks who are, a lot of them
05:09are quite smart. They don't have strong financial backing, but they do have the spirit and the
05:14idealism of, you know, hoping to see Malaysia goals into a better direction.
05:19Right. And you mentioned the kind of the membership or the composition of the party is not just young
05:26people. And I think there's a misconception. I'm not young, Lissa. There's a misconception.
05:30I may seem it, but this is the internet filter. So, I may look in my 30s, but I'm not.
05:35The name of the party is maybe, I guess, a misnomer for many people. But who would you say,
05:44Zaidiel, is currently Muda's strongest support base? Who are you appealing to in, I guess,
05:53in the lead up to the next general elections to try and win more than one parliamentary seat?
05:57One of the things that we kind of notice is that in Malaysia, right, people often talk about the
06:02needing to help the poor. They need to help those who are in need. And we are in fully support
06:06of
06:07that. We understand that. We think the SARA initiative is good. We think the BUDY 95 initiative
06:12is good. Again, we're the opposition party. If the government does something right, we applaud about
06:15it. But one of the things that we see in this current government and also the lack of opposition
06:23taking any initiative towards this is that it seems that the middle class is being sidelined in this
06:30country. I don't like to use the term B40, M40, because I don't think that reflects the actual
06:35demographic of our country. Because mathematically speaking, I think the largest group in Malaysia is
06:40actually the middle class. Those who earn, depends on household where you live and things like that.
06:45But I think the biggest part is middle class. We are a highly urbanized country, to be fair. I think
06:50for the past 10 years, our urbanization rate is above 70%. If I'm not mistaken, and correct me if I'm
06:55wrong, maybe it's up to high about 80%. I'll give an example, right? So a lot of when we talk
07:01about
07:01electoral strategies, right? A lot of people would say, oh, you need to win the rural seats,
07:06right? But majority of rural voters are in urban areas. Voters in Kuala Pila is in Kuala Lumpur.
07:11Voters in Kelantan are mostly in Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley and Selangor. And so they have urban
07:16concerns. They are worried about the economy. They are worried about the economic policies that does not
07:23reflect towards them. So a big chunk of Malaysians who are in the middle class, who can't enjoy these
07:30specialized gifts or subsidies that they are entitled to. But at the same time, they are being
07:36pushed by the rise of cost of living. They have to pay taxes. And I still remember recently, if it
07:42wasn't for our sole MP that strongly were against this, there was that talk that the government wants
07:48to include the T15 out of a lot of government programs and also government infrastructures like
07:54government hospitals and schools like that, not knowing that the definition of T15 that was in
08:01Department of Statistics Malaysia, or at least at that time, because they weren't very clear about it,
08:05were actually a huge chunk of Malaysians as well. Those who are working in offices in government,
08:11offices in government servants, people in middle class management in GLCs and MNCs, people with
08:17degree who are starting their, and professionals who are starting in their careers. And so I think
08:22what the country needs is people to speak on behalf of the middle class. And that's what we're trying
08:27to do.
08:27Okay, so that's very interesting. And I think with our, this year and in the coming months,
08:36we have a very healthily packed electoral calendar, both statewide and in the lead up to the general
08:43elections. If Muda has been around for six years and has participated in multiple state elections as
08:50well as the past general election, what lessons do you think Muda has learned from that electoral
08:56experience? And I do wonder how you might, how that might shape the way the new Central Executive
09:03Committee approaches these upcoming elections?
09:07Well, some of the lessons that we learn is that, number one is that the dynamics of politics is
09:14changing in ways that we couldn't even imagine. I don't think this is just speaking on me or Muda,
09:19but by everyone. We never expected, let's, I put this into context, right? We are, we have been
09:25here for six years, but we've only got registered after we had to fight through the court cases.
09:31We had to garner the party elections through the courts. We will, many people forget, we actually
09:37campaigned for Anu Ibrahim to be Prime Minister. And we were vehemently against the kleptocracy,
09:461MDB scattles, trying to save certain politicians from charges in the courts. And well, what happens
09:54now is quite shocking, to be honest. And so that, that is what we understand is that politics is
09:59very dynamic. There's a lot of things that, number one, you need to have pragmatic political
10:04alliances. That's definitely, we have to do about it. We have to go about it. But at the same time,
10:09and I know we may sound idealistically naive, but I think there needs to be someone who has to be
10:16there. And which is, while other political parties are more than willingly to tell away their
10:25idealism or whatever the promises they say on, on the drama stage, I think while Muda understands
10:33the lessons of having political pragmatism, we must stay true to our goals. We're not hungry of being in
10:40power. For us, being in the government is a means to change something. Now, if being an effective
10:46opposition can affect that change by having more MPs in parliament gets the public sentiment to move
10:53towards institutional reforms, that's fine by us. So the lessons that we learn is that, and we'll kind
11:00of see whether this comes true or not, we're betting on it, is that Malaysian voters aren't easily
11:05attitude. And that you can't simply go on to the drama stage, promises reforms, saying that we are a
11:12party that wants to change. And the minute you become prime minister, you're quiet as a mouse.
11:16Or you say, oh, we cannot do because, you know, this guy or that guy or this guy. No. If
11:22certain parties
11:23in Malaysia think that by playing an off, out of context, a short video that fear mongers of certain
11:33ethnic group to, you know, guiltily force them to vote for you, even though you don't deliver any
11:39election promises, I think that's a big mistake. And we hope that this can be seen in the next
11:44general election, whether the Malaysian electorals, Malaysian voters will take political parties into
11:50account, especially those that promises changes and reforms, but are now giving 1,000 excuses even with
11:58the two-third majority in parliament. Zaidil, thank you so much for being on the show with me today.
12:02It's Zaidil Faruddin from Muda. They're wrapping up this episode of Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris,
12:07signing off the evening. Thank you so much for watching and good night.
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