Syed Saddiq Syed Abd Rahman is certainly a hot topic amongst the youth nowadays, with his various TikToks criticizing the behaviour of the current government becoming viral almost every other week now. 
This time he has entered the fray into pushing for the legalization of marijuana, hopping onto the back of the recent Yasin Sulaiman medical marijuana issue, using the slogan, “Pesakit bukan penjenayah” (patients are not criminals) to garner public sympathy on the issue.
The former youth and sports minister also shared a picture showing Yasin's post on Facebook on October 14, which, among others, stated that cannabis has many medical benefits, especially for people with mental health issues like him.
What should have been done to push this policy perhaps was to lean less on the sympathy card, but more on the policy-side to better communicate his stance towards the benefits of medical marijuana.
Then again, we shouldn’t hope too much from Saddiq.
To his credit, Syed Saddiq’s achievement of pushing a constitutional amendment in Dewan Rakyat on the 16th of July 2019 is something that all Malaysians can be proud of. True to his word as youth orientated minister, he is not only the first politician to successfully push through a constitutional amendment since 2009, but also the first person to do so with a government that does not have a 2/3 majority in Parliament.
However, his latest forays into social media politics are as deep as you would think are - nothing more than pure PR stunts, from criticizing the second round of AstraZeneca vaccines to criticizing the tone-deaf press conference by now former Prasarana chairman, Tajuddin. Interestingly, all of these stunts inevitably led to him being called up to meet the police.
Through his Facebook and Instagram livestreams, he rants and raves that he is the future of Malaysia and that he needs more time to build a new Malaysia.
But what Malaysians need to realize is that he has done little to prove that is something worth banking on, unless you base your metrics are what might benefit Syed Saddiq politically.
He recently criticized the business model of private universities, calling them as shams for providing them with sub-par education and PTPTN debts. This is far cry from the almost rancorous calls for the complete abolishment of the PTPTN loans during the GE14 campaigning period.
Yet it was Saddiq, in power no less, who was the one backtracked on this campaign promise – calling for National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) borrowers who have the means to repay their loans despite earning less than RM4,000 a month must be responsible by settling their debts.
There is no need for anyone to give Saddiq another chance, he after all had proven himself to be wanting during his time in power.
His tenure as a Minister was marked with various episodes of hypocrisy and even demagoguery. Recently, he quipped that the government should not revive the National Service program as it is “wasteful”, while citing that programs under his Ministry during Pakatan Harapan’s 22-month reign cost much less in comparison – despite nothing ever happened to the Youth Power initiative which cost taxpayers more than RM 50 million.
Along with this double standard and selective behaviour, we all recall the many empty statements that did not materialise – 400 thousand jobs to be created in Johor, the abolishment of PTPTN loans, etc.
Syed Saddiq still thinks that he gets to escape from tough situations by saying the “right” things – at least to his audiences – and be done with it. Again and again we have seen him exhibiting the same behaviour when it comes to the struggle of the Malaysian people – only fit for props for his social media and nothing else, with not a single tangible policy supported to uplift the poor.
The former youth and sports minister also shared a picture showing Yasin's post on Facebook on October 14, which, among others, stated that cannabis has many medical benefits, especially for people with mental health issues like him.
What should have been done to push this policy perhaps was to lean less on the sympathy card, but more on the policy-side to better communicate his stance towards the benefits of medical marijuana.
Then again, we shouldn’t hope too much from Saddiq.
To his credit, Syed Saddiq’s achievement of pushing a constitutional amendment in Dewan Rakyat on the 16th of July 2019 is something that all Malaysians can be proud of. True to his word as youth orientated minister, he is not only the first politician to successfully push through a constitutional amendment since 2009, but also the first person to do so with a government that does not have a 2/3 majority in Parliament.
However, his latest forays into social media politics are as deep as you would think are - nothing more than pure PR stunts, from criticizing the second round of AstraZeneca vaccines to criticizing the tone-deaf press conference by now former Prasarana chairman, Tajuddin. Interestingly, all of these stunts inevitably led to him being called up to meet the police.
Through his Facebook and Instagram livestreams, he rants and raves that he is the future of Malaysia and that he needs more time to build a new Malaysia.
But what Malaysians need to realize is that he has done little to prove that is something worth banking on, unless you base your metrics are what might benefit Syed Saddiq politically.
He recently criticized the business model of private universities, calling them as shams for providing them with sub-par education and PTPTN debts. This is far cry from the almost rancorous calls for the complete abolishment of the PTPTN loans during the GE14 campaigning period.
Yet it was Saddiq, in power no less, who was the one backtracked on this campaign promise – calling for National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) borrowers who have the means to repay their loans despite earning less than RM4,000 a month must be responsible by settling their debts.
There is no need for anyone to give Saddiq another chance, he after all had proven himself to be wanting during his time in power.
Along with this double standard and selective behaviour, we all recall the many empty statements that did not materialise – 400 thousand jobs to be created in Johor, the abolishment of PTPTN loans, etc.
Syed Saddiq still thinks that he gets to escape from tough situations by saying the “right” things – at least to his audiences – and be done with it. Again and again we have seen him exhibiting the same behaviour when it comes to the struggle of the Malaysian people – only fit for props for his social media and nothing else, with not a single tangible policy supported to uplift the poor.
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