In the first series of the Youth Parliamentary Debathon 2022 jointly organised by Malaysiakini and KiniEvents in collaboration with the European Union Delegation to Malaysia, 10 youth representatives across the country tried to address the issue of low voter turnout among youths during the recent election.
The aim of this discussion is to give the youth an opportunity to speak out, voice their challenges and give their views and suggestions on how to encourage other youths to go out and exercise their democratic right.
The debaters between the ages of 16 and 25 brought concrete arguments to convince the audience before they voted to support or oppose the motion.
In total, there were 3,002 total voters who participated in the Youth Parliamentary Debathon voting system. Based on the 10 proposals submitted by all the youth representatives, Jason Kng Wei Liang's (from the opposition bench) suggestion on (Based External Factors Such as Education and Employment) received the highest vote which is 79%.
The 23-year-old student from Universiti Sains Malaysia, was awarded the Popular Debater title for the first series of the Youth Parliamentary Debathon 2022.
This was followed by Farhan Mokhali (from the government bench) suggestion on (Party Hopping) which had 66% vote and Hema Shankar (from the opposition bench) suggestion on (Government Not Giving Inspiration To Politics) which had 65% of the vote.
Below are all the 10 proposed suggestions from the youth representatives:
1. Political Dominance
2. Weak Voting System
3. Postal Ballot System Is Not User Friendly
4. Lack Of Confidence In The Government Trust
5. The Government Is Not Giving Inspiration To Politics
6. Based By External Factors Such As Education and Employment
7. Not Confident Towards SPR and Democracy
8. Party Hopping
9. Feeling Left Out In The Formulation of National Policy
10. Youth Are Not Interested To Vote
All the problem statements and suggestions presented by the fellow debaters will be documented and submitted to the Youth and Sports Department under the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The following round of debates will be held from September to October, with students debating on compulsory voting.
You can also rewatch again the first series and the second series of the Youth Parliamentary Debathon 2022. For further information on the Youth Parliamentary Debathon visit this website or email to [email protected].
