MUDA leaders denied rumours that the original party members have quit, saying the people in the movement are is still very much committed to the cause.

“All of the original proponents, the 13 co-founders and sponsors are still very much with Muda,” co-founder Dr Thanussha Francis Xavier told The Malaysian Insight.

Selangor Muda state committee member Chiang Kah Vern had recently taken to Twitter to air his displeasure at being kicked out of a WhatsApp group.

Chiang went on to list the reasons he had left the party, accusing Muda of tokenism attempts at diversity, lack of direction and arrogance in refusing to work with others such as Pakatan Harapan.

“Kah Vern was involved in the state committees and they had a disagreement. It definitely could have been handled better on our side, I don’t think it is fair to just remove someone from a WhatsApp group. They should have communicated with him.”

“(As for the) tokenism and all that, that’s not the case. We really believe in what we’re doing and we are pushing on that front. He’s entitled to his opinion, but I’m clueless about what he’s referring to.

“We have over 30,000 members, it would be great if we could keep all of them but I don’t really think it’s shocking (that one should leave),” Xavier said.

The Muda co-founder reiterated that the party remains united.

“All of us, we’re doing this not for our personal agenda. We all left what we were doing, professional careers, businesses, academicians.

“This is a difficult task, the only reason we’re doing this is because of passion. We’re all very united and we’re clear on this.

“There have been many individuals that have come in and changed their commitment because it is demanding and a lot of people are still working their day jobs or have families. We are flexible because politics is voluntary. We do not exclude anyone from any process,” she said.

Meanwhile, lawyer Lim Wei Jiat, who is also a co-founder of the party, said while many supported Muda at the start, it didn’t not mean that they wanted to be part of the day to day operations of the party.

“There were many business and civil society leaders across the board who were supportive of Muda as a party at the beginning.

“But that doesn’t mean they want to be involved in running and leading the party, which is very fair.

“I don’t think anybody has left or had put distanced themselves from the party, it’s just that they chose to focus on their current roles while being supportive of Muda from the outside.” – April 9, 2021.