Adam Adli hopes meteoric political rise won't come crashing next week
PETALING JAYA : Outgoing PKR Youth chief Adam Adli hopes his meteoric rise in politics would not be cut short at the party elections next week, where he is vying for a spot on the central leadership council.
The former student activist, who joined PKR in 2021, was made the wing's chief a year later before being named the party's candidate for the Hang Tuah Jaya parliamentary seat in the 15th general election.
In December 2022, he was appointed deputy youth and sports minister in the unity government.
'It is a whirlwind political journey which happened over a few years.
'But I do want to avoid an 'easy-come-easy-go' situation,' he told FMT in an exclusive interview.
Commenting on the May 23 polls, Adam admitted he was concerned about his chances of climbing the political ladder after failing in his bid to become the Hang Tuah Jaya PKR division deputy chief last month.
Adam lost to Zamzizul Nordin, while the prime minister's political secretary Shamsul Iskandar Akin defeated Rafee Ibrahim – Adam's running mate — for the division chief post.
However, he is taking that loss in his stride and would rather focus on the positives, adding that winning and losing was part and parcel of politics.
'Losing isn't the end of the world. Instead it inspires me to work harder. It (losing) also provides me the opportunity to reflect on my identity and weaknesses.'
Adam said one of the issues he identified during the divisional elections was a lack of preparation when going up against Shamsul and the latter's team.
'So I need to improve on this to ensure I have sufficient support (in future).'
Separately, Adam said he will be banking on his three-year experience as the PKR Youth chief to appeal to the delegates who would eventually have a say in whether he sits on the 20-seat council.
Among his achievements, which he hopes will be a pull factor, was stabilising the wing's divisions after the 'Sheraton Move' led to the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan government in 2020. This was after several of the wing's members defected to other parties.
'Post Sheraton Move, there were around 53 to 57 divisions. Now there are over 200.
'And this was done in such a short span of time as we were scrambling to prepare for a general election.'
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