The youngest and most handsome minister in Southeast Asian history
Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman is currently the Minister of Youth and Sports of Malaysia. Syed is the youngest Minister since Malaysia's independence.
Syed, who turns 26 on December 6, was sworn in as Malaysia's 18th Youth and Sports Minister on July 2.
Syed's appointment as a minister in Malaysia's new coalition government is historic in itself as he is the youngest minister in the country's history. His predecessor, Khairy Jamaluddin, was also Malaysia's youngest minister when he was appointed to the cabinet at the age of 37 in 2013.
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| The road to becoming the youngest minister in Southeast Asia of a 25-year-old man. |
Born in Johor, Seyed is the youngest of four children, his father is a construction worker and his mother is an English teacher at a secondary school. From a young age, Syeda was determined not to let her and her parents’ efforts go to waste.
Syed graduated from the International Islamic University School of Law and recently turned down a second Masters in Public Policy offer from the University of Oxford.
Good-looking and quick-witted, Syed was quite famous in the debate community before entering politics. Syed won the Asian British Parliamentary (ABP) Debate Championship's Best Speaker award three times.
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| Syed (left) has won the Asian British Parliamentary Debate Championship three times. |
In 2017, Syed turned down a scholarship offer worth RM400,000 to continue his studies at Oxford University in the UK, in order to continue his political career in Malaysia. A year later, the young man was elected as a member of the legislature at the age of 25. At this time, Syed Saddiq once again turned down another scholarship offer, this time a Chevening scholarship, which would have helped him pursue a Master's degree in public policy at Oxford University.
According to Syeda Saddiq, he turned down the scholarship because he wanted to continue to play an important role in the House of Representatives to raise issues related to education and the future of young people in Malaysia.
The Coverage newspaper quoted the Minister as saying that the Malaysian people's acceptance of young leaders clearly shows that they want change.
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| Seyed is the youngest of four children, his father is a construction worker and his mother is an English teacher at a high school. |
Syed rose to prominence in Malaysian politics after winning the Muar constituency during the country's 14th general election. Syeda defeated the incumbent Barisan Nasional candidate, Datuk Seri Razali Ibrahim. Razali was the deputy minister of youth and sports from 2009 to 2013.
Winning Muar with a majority of votes was a huge success for the young man. After this success, the number of Syed's supporters on social media, especially Instagram, increased dramatically. Syed Saddiq said that with a huge increase in his social media following, he now wants to make sure that the information posted online is positive and beneficial to his supporters.
As Minister of Youth and Sports, Syed is expressing his desire to lower the voting age in Malaysia from 21 to 18.
