Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz

Amira Aisya Binti Abd Aziz ( ms, اميرا عائشة بنت عبدالعزيز, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; born 1995) is a Malaysian politician who has served as Member of the Johor State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Puteri Wangsa since March 2022. She is a co-founder and member of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA), a party that is aligned with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition. She has also served as the 1st Deputy President of MUDA since July 2022 and 2nd Secretary-General of MUDA from August 2021 to July 2022. In addition, she is presently the youngest MLA of Johor at the age of 27, the first female Puteri Wangsa MLA and the only MLA from her party.

Early life and education

Amira was born in Kampung Melayu Majidee, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia in 1995. Amira and her 4 siblings were raised by their single mother. Amira's father passed away in 2007 when Amira was only 12. Amira received primary and secondary education at Sultan Ibrahim Girls School, Johor Bahru and later furthered her studies at International Islamic University Malaysia (UIA) and obtained a Masters degree in law.

Amira was one of the members of the Johor Student Leaders Council (JSLC) when she was 16 and later became one of the strategic planners and members of advisory panel at the Johor Student Leaders Council Alumni (JSLCA) when she was 18. At the same year, Amira also became the youngest member of the National Children Consultant and Legal Counsel Council. Amira has trained 10,000 student leaders in the entire Johor and was a model director of Johor of the United Nations (UN) during her time in JSLCA. Amira also helped in the success of the first UN model of daily school students as she believed that national school students have the same rights as private school students.

Amira was also appointed as leadership trainer for the Treasure Ambassador Programme 3.0, which is a social entrepreneurship programme for the university students of Johor. After ending her training in Chambers, Amira started work at the Educational Achievement and Implementation Unit (PADU) under the Ministry of Education which focuses the policies and research of the implementation of the national education plan. Amira headed the 21st century educational initiative and literation and numeration initiatives. Amira was also co-director in Youth Kuala Lumpur Summit in 2019. When she ended her service in PADU, Amira served as a research officer in the federal constituency of Muar since 2020.

Political career

On 17 September 2020, Amira co-founded MUDA with former Minister of Youth and Sports and present Muar Member of Parliament (MP) Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman with the latter as party president after being removed from the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) together with former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad by then Prime Minister and BERSATU president Muhyiddin Yassin after their fallout in political affiliations.

On 25 August 2021, Amir Abdul Hadi announced his resignation as the 1st Secretary-General of MUDA and Amira was appointed to take over him as the new and 2nd Secretary-General of MUDA effective a day before on 24 August 2021 as the former was going to the United Kingdom (UK) to further his studies. Exactly 11 months later on 24 July 2022, MUDA declared Amira as its 1st Deputy President and announced the comeback of Amir as its 3rd Secretary-General to replace Amira with immediate effect.

On 14 February 2022, she was unveiled as the candidate of MUDA for Puteri Wangsa state seat in the 2022 Johor state election by party president Syed Saddiq. Amira believes that Johor State Legislative Assembly needs leaders who focus on "politics of service" for the people of Johor and the fair and just policies for Johor to thrive prosperously and successfully. On 12 March 2022, Amira contested for the Puteri Wangsa state seat in Johor on MUDA ticket after MUDA began political cooperation with PH in the state election. She faced opponents Ng Yew Aik from Barisan Nasional (BN) and Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), Loh Kah Yong from Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (GERAKAN), Choong Shiau Yoon from Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) who is also Tebrau MP, Khairil Anwar Razali from the Homeland Fighters Party (PEJUANG) as well as another independent Adzrin Adam. She went on to defeat all of her opponents and win the Puteri Wangsa state seat with the total number of 22,884 votes and by a majority of 7,114 votes. Following her electoral victory, she became the first and sole MLA from the party which made its electoral debut in the election and second member of a legislature after Syed Saddiq as well as the first candidate to win on the MUDA ticket in election.

Controversies and issues

On 10 February 2022, an internal dispute and disgruntlement involving neophyte MUDA and PH component parties People's Justice Party (PKR) and National Trust Party (AMANAH) built up and erupted. Women Chief of PKR of Johor Napsiah Khamis claimed that the party grassroots leaders had worked hard on the ground in Puteri Wangsa to restore support for PH since the seat went to PN in February 2020 after its MLA Mazlan Bujang left PH together with Muhyiddin for PN. Puteri Wangsa state seat was initially allocated to AMANAH following several rounds of tough negotiations. According to Napsiah, Johor PKR decided to allow AMANAH to contest for the Puteri Wangsa state seat as the initial plan was to nominate assembly speaker Suhaizan Kayat who is from AMANAH to contest for the seat. Napsiah then lashed out the disappointment of Johor PKR grassroots at AMANAH for easily giving up the chance to contest for it to MUDA although PKR initially also wanted it but gave to AMANAH for PH coalition peace and unity and to prevent internal conflicts. Napsiah also did not deny that she was initially speculated to contest the Puteri Wangsa seat, which she claimed was easy for PH or MUDA to gain victory. She also expressed deep regret that they have lost the chance to contest for the seat despite their hard efforts and work to the best of their ability to restore support in Puteri Wangsa. She also slammed Amira by accusing her the lack of readiness to contest due to the lack of knowledge about politics, political experience and election machinery to contest as well as questioning the standards of MUDA on choosing candidates and seats to contest. Nevertheless, she clarified whether or not the PKR grassroots would boycott MUDA in the state election, she would still abide by all decisions made by the leadership of PKR and played down the issue that she was just expressing the sentiments of the PKR grassroots that AMANAH was disrespectful.

On another issue, Napsiah also stressed that she was too busy to entertain Amira and expressed her annoyance about Amira who kept on messaging her to teach Amira about election preparations and told Amira to wait till she was free. Amira then openly apologised to Napsiah for her disturbance and clarified that she did that in her capacity as MUDA secretary-general and noted that she always respected those that had been in politics for a long time. She also hoped to carry on communications with Napsiah in the spirit of friendship and mutual respect and to move forward. On 28 February and 5 March 2022 during the campaigning period of the 2022 Johor state election, her electoral materials like her billboards suffered from endless attacks and vandalism. On 6 March 2022, she said she was unfazed by spelling out that she would not back down as she wanted to promote “mature politics” and she has also lodged a police report. She also noted that this was exactly why she joined politics, which was to ensure that these behaviours were not normalised.

Election results

See also

* 2020–2021 Malaysian political crisis
* Puteri Wangsa (state constituency)
* Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on politics in Malaysia

References

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Living people
People from Johor Bahru
Malaysian people of Malay descent
Malaysian Muslims
Malaysian women lawyers
Members of the Johor State Legislative Assembly
Women MLAs in Johor
21st-century Malaysian politicians
21st-century Malaysian lawyers
21st-century Malaysian women politicians
1995 births