Could he be our future PM?

In the 14th GE, Saddiq was nominated by PPBM to compete in his hometown for the Muar parliamentary seat, going against BN incumbent, Razali Ibrahim. Saddiq won the seat with a majority of 6,953 votes.

Saddiq is the ‘baby’ of Bersatu. Though the youngest, he is viewed as someone who has the key attributes of a servant leader – listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building community. His main vehicle in speaking his mind has always been via academic debates and dialogues which gives less room for the public to simply ‘shoot’ him.

For a political newcomer like Saddiq, to defeat the long-standing Barisan incumbent somewhat had shown that people are ready for a change. They may have felt that not much has been done in that position in quite some time and people are just tired of the lifelong politicians.

He has been very vocal in his stands in the Malaysian political scene. He wanted change, and that very aspiration resonated with the younger generation who wanted to see the change taking place in the government.

From the graph, it can be seen that Saddiq has an increase trend in terms of his exposure in the news outlet. His popularity boosted when he won the Muar parliamentary seat.

People, especially, the younger generations cheered him on as he is someone they could relate to. His aspirations on reducing the cost of living and championing the youth resonated with many university students and the younger generation who has been feeling the most out of DS Najib’s administration.

In his videos on Instagram, we often see Saddiq refers the then government as a ‘kleptocracy regime’. This, resonated with many, as they feel betrayed. On the other hand, in the real world, we can see him ‘turun padang’ to actually converse personally with the people of Muar about their problems and addressing them.

It is interesting to see Saddiq’s performance now that he is in the government. Will he be as passionate in delivering the youths voice? Will he stand by the people with his promises? Or was it all just part of the campaign to get votes?

While he has the surface quality of what makes a Prime Minister, it is too early to say now that we’ve yet to see his true performance.