PH must build, tap into a cohesive youth movement, says Dr Yii

Dr Kelvin Yii

KUCHING (March 14): The Pakatan Harapan (PH) political coalition must now lay serious groundwork to build and tap into a cohesive youth movement leading up to the 15th General Election, said Democratic Action Party (DAP) Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.

He said fresh perspective must be brought to the table by listening to the voices of the youth, and the movement must be inclusive that communicates clearly the ideas and policies on issues affecting the young population.

“Such a movement must be a collective effort to reach out, engage, listen, and more importantly get them involved and even possibly take important political leadership,” said Dr Yii in a statement.

He said the just-concluded Johor state election had in fact displayed a real concern.

“If progressive forces continue to be divided, Malaysia will descend towards a failed state, where political leaders convicted of mega-corruption crimes are tolerated and even celebrated as heroes.”

However, Dr Yii said there was still a glimmer of light even in the ‘bleakest moment’ with more young people realising their voice matters in determining the country’s future and for the first time ever, 18- to 20-year-olds voted in an election.

He said the reform to allow 18- to 20-year-olds to vote through a constitutional amendment, otherwise known as Undi18, was only realised after constant pressure on the federal government to implement it.

“Despite Parliament passing constitutional amendments to lower the voting age under the PH government, there were multiple obstacles and delays. After the Sheraton move, the Perikatan Nasional (PN)-led government made many excuses, even trying to delay the Undi18’s implementation as late as September 2022.”

In spite of that, Dr Yii said multiple judicial reviews were filed in High Courts by young people across the country to demand that Undi18 be implemented immediately, and a favourable decision was finally made on Sept 3 last year.

He said the Act was then brought into operation on Dec 15 and this had effectively allowed 5.8 million new voters to be added into the electoral roll under automatic voter registration, out of which 1.4 million were under 21 years old.

Dr Yii added that the Malaysian youth had long been excluded from the political process, with the Barisan National government introducing the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) in 1971, which banned students from taking part in politics.

Having said that, he said the Johor state election had welcomed a new shift as the youth fought back by exercising their rights to vote.

“Pictures of ‘stained’ fingers and stories of first-time voters sharing their experience are aplenty on social media. Many mobilised family, friends, relatives, and social media circles to come out and vote.”

He said a team effort led by the youth had embarked on the UndiJohor initiative that brought home up to 5,000 votes from Malaysians working in Singapore.

“Many successful candidates’ campaigns were also run by scores of young people. Teams that did not win nonetheless fought a brave and more importantly, clean fight that promoted their candidates on the basis of service and integrity,”

As a result, Dr Yii said renewal of the country starts with the youth and most importantly, the young should be encouraged to take on positions of main authority and leadership.

“Harapan’s defeat in Johor (state election) on top of other electoral defeats since 2018 must be our final wake-up call. As Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Dr Yii said young Malaysians will be the bridge that connects disparate groups and energising them into a potent and cohesive force to champion for a better future.

In the just concluded Johor state election, Barisan National had won 40 seats, while Pakatan Harapan took 12 seats, Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) won one seat and Perikatan National took three seats.

Back in the 2018 state election, PH had won 36 seats, BN won 19 seats and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) took one seat.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3i2oLdx
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