Source:https://www.tindakmalaysia.org
ROSE -press release dated 17th June 2022
We are encouraged and welcome the recent suggestion by Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development, for age-appropriate civic and voter education to be introduced in upper secondary schools and that the State Ministry of Youth, Sports & Entrepreneur Development can supplement the role of the federal ministry to educate the young voters.
Indeed the responsibility to inculcate responsible or smart voters amongst the young falls on each of the stakeholders and cannot be just on the Election Commission alone. Civil society organizations, political parties, educators and even parents must play our roles in building responsible citizenry.
With the implementation of Undi 18 effective December 2021, more than 675,077 Sarawakians have now been added to the electoral roll. The total number of voters is 1,927,750 as at 31st Dec 2021, we have 28.54% of the age group of 18-29 years old ie. about 550,000 can vote in the coming GE15. The ideal scenario is that everyone in this age-group goes out to vote as they are the ones whose lives and future will be most impacted or affected by policies and decisions made by the government of the day. Whether they will go out to choose their elected representative in Parliament depends on what we the above stakeholders do from now on. Pls find attached a pie-chart graphic credits to Tindak Malaysia.
The increase in number of young voters will be meaningless if they do not know the value of their vote nor bother to participate as voters in the election. This will not augur well for the state of democracy in our beloved land.
Civic and voters Education has been a core focus of our organization goals and we run activity-based and interactive civic/voter education workshops such as the Bengkel Kesedaran Demokrasi Belia in 2020, to increase awareness and knowledge of participants about the role and responsibilities, rights and duties of a citizen in a parliamentary democracy. We take this opportunity to welcome enquiries from any educational institutions or schools or other organizations within Sarawak to contact us if they are interested in conducting training or collaborating with us in other ways. Our email address is my@sarawakrose.org
Dated 17th June 2022
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Press release by Persatuan Pemangkin Daya Masyarakat (ROSE)
