He is hopeful Muda, his new party, will force other parties to factor in youth involvement in order to remain relevant to the electorate.
He said, even though the party may initially struggle with winning seats under the present first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system, he hoped that they could still trigger changes in existing political parties to involve more youths in leadership roles.
“We will force parties like Umno to compete by having a better representation of young people. Likewise, PPBM, DAP and PKR too would have to field young faces,” he said during a Malaysia Studies Programme webinar organised by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
He added that youth leaders “cannot just be tokens” in these parties.
“It cannot just be tokens here and there. We need to have meaningful representation of youths from top to bottom.”
He was asked how he planned on winning seats with the present FPTP system, which meant that, while the party may be popular among youths, it would not necessarily translate into a significant number of seats.
“I completely agree. The FPTP will penalise non-traditional parties but it is not impossible to achieve some success in the polls.
“We don’t have to immediately look at being the biggest party or contesting in the most number of seats,” he said, adding that Muda will make use of technology by being data-driven to identify areas where there could be potential breakthroughs.
Syed Saddiq also admitted it might take some time to reform the electoral system to become more inclusive.
“Either way, Muda must be set up now to prepare for that time to come, if not during GE15 then maybe the next general election. But the groundwork must already start.”
He added that Muda would also want to target young people who were apathetic or disenchanted with the present political climate.
“My fear in the upcoming general election is not that Umno and BN would have so much money for campaigning and what not but that young people would tune out. They just might not turn up to vote.”
Therefore, he said Muda would aim to make such youths feel included in order to create a “groundswell movement”.
The former PPBM youth chief had previously announced that he would be starting a youth-centric party, which would have no age-limit despite its name.
However, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other political stalwarts questioned the relevance of such a party and downplayed its impact on the local political scene.