Syed Saddiq

As the Minister of Youth and Sports, Saddiq pushed for a lower voting age, or eligibility to vote in Malaysia, from 21 to 18 years old ahead of the 15th General Election (GE15), an effort dubbed as "Undi18".

However, he agreed that first a political exposure programme for the young people of Malaysia is needed.

Syed Saddiq bin Syed Abdul Rahman Al-Sagoff (سيد صادق بن سيد عبدالرحمن ٱلسَّقَّاف; born 6 December 1992) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Muar since May 2018.

In 2023, he was convicted of criminal breach of trust and money laundering.

Saddiq was born on 6 December 1992 in Pulai, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.

His father is a Singaporean, who used to work as a construction worker in Singapore.

His mother used to be an English teacher.

The youngest of four siblings, he had studied at the Royal Military College (RMC) before continuing his studies at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in Bachelor of Laws (LLB).

During his time at IIUM, he competed in an Asian-level debate competition and successfully won the United Asian Debating Championship (UADC).

He is widely known in the debating community after having won Asia's Best Speaker award at the Asian British Parliamentary (ABP) Debating Championship three times.

In 2015, Saddiq served as Perdana Fellow (Malay: Felo Perdana) to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Nancy Shukri.

He was also a founding member of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), a former component party of the PH coalition and served as 1st Youth Chief of BERSATU from the founding in September 2016 to his removal from the party in May 2020.

Although he is presently the sole MUDA MP, his conviction and sentencing to imprisonment exceeds 1 year, which means he is liable for automatic disqualification as a MP for Muar.

In 2021, he was charged with several counts of corruption, including criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of funds, and money laundering.

On 28 October 2022, he has been ordered by the High Court to enter his defence after the prosecution showed that there was enough evidence against him to prove that he probably committed the crime.

On 9 November 2023, Syed Saddiq was convicted by the High Court of all the corruption charges, sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, a RM 10 million fine and two strokes of the cane.

Saddiq as a law graduate came to prominence in 2016 when he joined 24 other youths, a group that called themselves Change Led by the Young Generation (Challenger), published a statement rejecting Najib Razak's leadership over the scandal of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Saddiq was the leader of ARMADA (Malay: Angkatan Bersatu Anak Muda); the youth wing of the BERSATU.

He was a spokesperson for the party since its inception in September 2016 and was considered one of the founding members and sat on the party council.

In 2017, he allegedly rejected a counter offer to pursue his studies at Oxford University, England [Oxford University however denied the offer] to remain active in politics.

A year later, after being elected as MP at the age of 25, Syed Saddiq once again allegedly dismissed another scholarship offer, this time rejecting the Chevening Scholarship proposal to pursue a Master in Public Policy at Oxford University.

In April 2021, he successfully completed the Lee Kuan Yew Senior Fellowship in Public Service Programme at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

He served as the Minister of Youth and Sports in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from July 2018 to the collapse of the PH administration in February 2020, thus making him the youngest federal minister in Malaysian history.

Saddiq made his debut contesting the 2018 general election (GE14) for the Muar parliamentary seat and was elected to the Parliament.

He was then appointed as the Minister of Youth and Sports in the PH new government making him the youngest ever federal minister in 2018 since Malaysia's independence.

He is the youngest cabinet Minister to be appointed at the age of 25 as well as the third youngest MP after also 2018-elected Prabakaran Parameswaran (21) and 1976-elected Najib Razak (22) since Independence in the history of Malaysia.

He was even called as 'cucu' , literally means 'grandson' for his youthfulness in the Parliament house.

He was charged with another accusation of misappropriating RM120,000 in BERSATU donation money intended for the 2018 general election.

He had claimed trial to both counts of corruption and was released on bail of RM330,000 with additional conditions.

In July 2019, Saddiq tabled a Bill in Parliament to amend the Federal Constitution to lower the voting age to 18 but it was withdrawn and re-tabled later after it was tweaked to accommodate some changes.

The Dewan Rakyat on 16 July unanimously passed the re-tabled Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019 bill to lower the voting age, as well as eligibility to contest in election to 18 and automatic registration of voters by Election Commission (EC).

In November 2021, the constitutional amendment was finally gazetted which stated that Undi18 amendments would come into effect for implementation on 15 December as consented by Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

He is a founding member of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) and has served as 1st President of MUDA since September 2020 until November 2023.

He became an Independent in May 2020 after being terminated as a member and first youth chief of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), which was a component party of the then-ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

Following his expulsion from BERSATU, Mahathir and his-led MPs have formed a new party, named Party of Homeland's Fighters (PEJUANG).

However instead of joining PEJUANG, on 21 August Syed Saddiq announced that he will be establishing a new multi-racial, youth-centric party.

On 17 September 2020, Saddiq launched and co-founded the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) and was officially registered as political party on 23 December 2021.

In the 2023 state elections, he took MUDA against the unity government by contesting against Pakatan Harapan incumbents, and lost all the seats contested.

In July 2021, he was charged with criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of funds belonging to his former party, BERSATU.

For the first charge, Syed Saddiq, the then-BERSATU's youth chief, was charged with criminal breach of trust for withdrawing RM1.12 million via a cheque without BERSATU's supreme council's approval.