In Muar, a small town on the Malay coast southeast of Malacca, the headquarters of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) party is a simple local wedged between two shops, not far from a fishing port. On this monsoon day of November 11, young people are preparing the party’s black and white T-shirts for the cenarah, the election meeting of the founder of the party, Syed Saddiq, 29, which is held the same evening. These young people, who will vote for the first time, are one of the major issues in the legislative elections of November 19, the first since 2018.
A constitutional reform entry into force in 2021 has in fact lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, making it possible, for the first time, to talk about politics in universities. It also established an automatic voter registration system. These two measures suddenly inflated the potential electorate by 40% compared to 2018, or 6 million additional voters.
Syed Saddiq is a candidate for re-election in the constituency of Muar, during this election which follows two years of political crisis where two prime ministers succeeded each other without consulting the voters because of Covid-19. In 2021, through clever maneuvers, the National Organization of Malay Unity (UMNO), the formation that has held the country since independence in 1957, managed to return to power. She was expelled from it in 2018 following the “1MDB” (“1Malaysia Development Berhad”) scandal, the embezzlement of astronomical sums siphoned off from this sovereign fund by former Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“Need a big sweep”
Mr. Saddiq, a Malaysian whose grandparents are from Muar, is the symbol of the mini-revolution underway in Malaysian politics: Minister of Youth and Sports between 2018 and 2020, he is at the origin of the constitutional amendment adopted under the government formed by the Alliance of Hope (Pakatan Harapan), victorious in the 2018 elections, and led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the old leader of Malaysia in the 1990s who rallied to the opposition and came out of retirement at 92. The young minister had been approached by Undi18, a movement created in 2016 by a Malaysian student in the United States, Qyira Yusri, to lower the voting age. “I have been accused several times of being an agent of the West. The conservative status quo is very difficult to shake up in Malaysia”explains, to World, the young lady.
You have 72.98% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.