Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz

Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz
Member of the Johor State Legislative Assembly for Puteri Wangsa
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 March 2022
Preceded by	Mazlan Bujang (PN-BERSATU)
Majority	7,114 (2022)
2nd Secretary-General of Malaysian United Democratic Alliance
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 September 2020
President	Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman
Preceded by	Amir Abd Hadi
Personal details
Born	Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz 1995 (age 26-27) Kampung Melayu Majidee, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Political party	Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) (since 2020)
Other political affiliations	Pakatan Harapan (PH) (aligned:since 2020)
Alma mater	International Islamic University Malaysia
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Lawyer

Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz (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 member of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA), a party that is aligned with the Pakatan Harapan (PH) opposition coalition. She is the co-founder and current Secretary-General of MUDA . She is also 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

Amira was born in Kampung Melayu Majidee, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia in 1995. Amira and her 4 siblings were grown by their single mother. The father of Amira passed away in 2007 when Amira was only 12. Amira received primary and secondary educations at Sultan Ibrahim Girls School, Johor Bahru and later furthered her studies at International Islamic University Malaysia (UIA) by majoring in a master’s 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 also have the rights as the private school students. Amira also used to be 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 the chamber, Amira started to 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 took care of 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 started to serve 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 her as party secretary-general and the latter as party president after the latter was removed from 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 affliations. Amira believes that Johor State Legislative Assembly needs leaders who focus on "politics of service" to the people of Johor and the fair and just policies for Johor to thrive prosperously and successfully. 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. Syed Saddiq described Amira as the "iron lady" and "backbone" of the party and appealed to the people of Puteri Wangsa to give her a chance and vote for her in the election for her to fight for the issues of people and education reforms which were close to her heart. Amira proclaimed herself as a "political greenhorn" and highlighted that her relatives were all here in various parts of the state and her aims and targets once she is elected. She noted that she wanted to contribute to the developments of Johor by bringing economic developments, implementing education reforms and increasing the safety of Puteri Wangsa and practicing the "politics of service" in line with the vision of MUDA. On 7 March 2022, Amira insisted that its election manifesto does not clash with that of its partner and PH and there would be no issue implementing its manifesto titled “Tekad Muda” alongside the promises of PH that they would jointly form a government after the election if they were to win in the election. She noted the party would find middle ground, and whatever the outcome, it will be beneficial to the rakyat as PH and MUDA share the same spirit of wanting a leadership of integrity, ensuring equal allocation for all state assemblymen and anti-party-hopping laws in Johor after being asked about the bargaining power of the party. She highlighted five pillars of the white manifesto book, firstly having energetic and fast leaders, secondly implementing democracy friendly to the people, thirdly fighting for the middle-income group (M40), fourthly closing class gap of society and lastly the economic developments for all. The other attentions of manifesto ranged from tackling climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, providing affordable housing through bulk buy, creating more jobs by incentivising private and government-linked companies to ensuring food security to provide economic and housing opportunities for new-generation Felda settlers. Amira admitted that some of plans need five to 10 years to achieve as they involved policy-making and implementation and expressed her confidence in realising them although some of them require long-term planning and tough efforts. 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. They agreed on seat distributions which MUDA was distributed Puteri Wangsa and 5 other state seats. 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. Syed Saddiq described her victory as the "starting point" of the party for getting foothold in the political landscape of Malaysia. He stressed that the party would build on its support among young voters in Johor to become “an opposition of quality” party, he also added that the party had done well with young voters as it had emerged as their second choice after more established parties despite having only a small election machinery. In addition, he congratulated Amira and conveyed his “condolences” in jest to Amira, as she reminded her that she had to work much harder after obtaining the mandate from the people. He also reminded Amira to prioritise the people and set aside personal interests, family or friends and he also stressed that the party would prove that. After her victory, she pledged to serve sincerely and bring the voices of Puteri Wangsa people to the Johor assembly and fighting for their interests. She also appealed to the people to provide her advice if she makes mistakes.

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. Meanwhile, Amira was sparing efforts to reach out and adapt to the multiracial demographics of the Puteri Wangsa people. She pointed out that nearly half the people there are Chinese while Malays make up around 39%. In order to have a more efficient communication with the Puteri Wangsa people, she has decided to attend classes to learn to speak Mandarin.

Election results

Johor State Legislative Assembly

Year	Constituency	Name		Votes	Pct	Opponent(s)		Votes	Pct	Ballots cast	Majority	Turnout
2022	Puteri Wangsa		Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz (MUDA)	22,884	43.22%		Ng Yew Aik (MCA)	15,770	29.78%	52,948	7,114	46.94%
							Loh Kah Yong (GERAKAN)	8,957	16.92%
							Choong Shiau Yoon (PBM)	2,471	4.67%
							Khairil Anwar Razali (PEJUANG)	2,468	4.66%
							Adzrin Adam (Independent)	398	0.75%

See also

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