MUAR MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s tweet last night that Malaysians would give Umno a fight for insisting on the 15th general election being held during the flood season exposed the bitterness some still harbour towards Pakatan Harapan (PH) over their short-lived 22-month old government. 

The founding member of Muda had tweeted: “#UndiBanjir it is then. Umno wants a fight, the rakyat will give them a fight. We have done it once, we will do it again. Let’s do this!” 

Syed Saddiq said this after Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan—at the end of the party’s supreme council meeting at Putra World Trade Centre last night—announced that the general election would be held this year. 

Kak EL@Elviralahweyy, in reply to the tweet that had generated 295 retweets, 65 quote tweets, and 970 likes by noon today, said tersely: “Rakyat don’t want”. 

Muda yesterday began official talks with PH to be a component member of the main opposition coalition.

One of Syed Saddiq’s followers on the social media platform, who goes by the name viveksarati@vivek_sarati, expressed his disappointment and rancour towards PH when he said the rakyat was fed up with all the politicking. 

“We hoped for a change in GE14. Tell me, what did you guys do with our votes? Constant bickering, treacherous. Back door dealings. Disappointing. We all know Umno is bad, but PH coalition parties are even worse. All have hidden agendas.” 

Another Twitter account holder who went by the name beware@beware_29112 echoed the same sentiment when he asked Syed Saddiq “to just take some time to think how much he used to be adored by everyone, including me”. 

“But today, yucks la weh! You’re just another hypocrite. Please don’t even come to PH. Pls! Nak anggap merayu pun merayu pi la, u go and do all your irrelevant political games somewhere else.” 

Malay Traditionalist@malaystrategist pointedly told Syed Saddiq that he and his political allies in PH had no hope of repeating their 2018 general election win as the “Rakyat dah tak percaya dah PH ni (the people no longer believe in PH)”. 

However, not all the replies lambasted Syed Saddiq and PH. 

Tan Wai Loon@tanwailoon, in reply to the young MP’s thread, sarcastically asked Malaysians to paint a mental picture of what it would be like to have the election during the flood. 

“Let’s entertain ourselves with the idea of an election in flood. 

“1. People lining up to vote. 2. Looking to the left are classrooms where voters cast their votes. 3. Looking to the right are victims next to their tents, sitting on the floor feeling traumatised.”

Syed Saddiq served as the youth and sports minister in the PH administration under former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad from July 2018 until the collapse of the Pakatan government  in February 2020.

While still in the government, the 29-year-old was instrumental in 2019 for the push to lower the voting age - the Undi18 - in parliament.

At the moment, the Muar MP is fighting a legal battle over the accusation that when he headed the Bersatu youth wing, he allegedly misappropriated more than RM1 million of the wing’s funds.

He is also facing two counts of money laundering.

The court has set October 6 for Syed Saddiq’s defence team to make their oral submissions after the prosecution rested its case. – October 1, 2022.