INTERVIEW | In August last year, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced he and his associates, who had been sacked from Bersatu, would be forming a new Malay-based political party.

The announcement came after their civil suit against Bersatu and its top leadership was set aside by the Kuala Lumpur High Court. At this juncture, there were six core members in Mahathir's camp who were seen to be behind the new party.

They were: Mahathir, his son Mukhriz, Simpang Renggam MP Maszlee Malik, Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Kubang Pasu MP Amiruddin Hamzah, and Senator Marzuki Yahya (above) who was also Bersatu secretary-general.

However, when the time came for Mahathir to announce the name of their new party, one of his associates, a rather prominent one, was not part of the picture.

The missing part was Syed Saddiq, who was once dubbed as Mahathir's blue-eyed boy. It was later understood that he had another idea, which was to form a new youth-centric political movement, now called Muda.

Malaysiakini, in an interview with Marzuki last week, posed a question about Syed Saddiq to the Pejuang pro-tem deputy president, trying to gauge his sentiment on the youth leader after the latter left their group...