Driven by our shared dream to see Sarawak take on its role as a nation-transformer, we at R.O.S.E. believe that the key is to create awareness among and empower rural communities in Sarawak. To this end, we have chosen to focus our resources on several initiatives, including:
1. Voter Registration:
Pending the implementation of automatic voter registration we organise Voter Registration drives at various locations including malls every month. We also appoint ‘Local Champions’ from rural districts to assist in new voter registrations. Leading up to GE14, we successfully registered about 2000 new voters. We are still continuing this campaign prior to Sarawak’s upcoming State Elections.
2. Civic and Voter Education:
From time to time we run an activity-based and interactive civic/voter education workshop which aims at increasing awareness and knowledge of participants about rights of citizens within a democracy in particular the responsibility to ensure good leaders are elected.
- We have also produced several short videos to educate voters on the value of the vote; ‘You Deserve Better’ was an animation educational clip translated into a few languages. More lately, it was a short clip “Tak Pangkah, Kau Rugi!’. The aim of thesevideos was to inform viewers on the power of the individual and collective vote/voice and that if we fail to make our choice we are allowing the status quo to persist. This is an important message in the light of recent surveys that some segments of electorate may choose to sit out this coming elections for a myriad of reasons including the belief that their vote would not make a difference.
- We also engage with the public by holding forums and talks on public/ current issues. Past forums have included post-election forum ‘Bicara Rakyat Pasca GE14’ to provide reflection and expert analysis on the results, forum on the issue of youth unemployment as well as one on politics and our daily lives ie. forum ‘GST & Periuk Nasi Kitak’. We will continue to utilize social media to engage with Sarawakian voters.
3. Election Participation through Polling Agent and Counting Agent(PACA) Training:
Being a PACA is another way of ensuring election rules are being upheld and followed and the citizen gets to do more than just going to vote. They get to participate in the process of an election and more often than not will continue to engage with decision-makers in other ways after these elections. Since 2018, we have trained about 300 Sarawakians as volunteer PACAs in various constituencies during elections.