LETTER | It’s been a month since Pakatan Harapan held the “Love Malaysia, End Kleptocracy” rally on Oct 14, 2017, at Padang Timur MBPJ. No fish were sold. No chairs were thrown. Overall, a peaceful Saturday evening.

Across the board, political commentators said that youth participation was dismal.

Allow me to share a different side of youth participation, as a young woman in the organising secretariat.

When Harapan's presidential council announced the rally in July, I was disappointed. No party wins elections purely on an “anti-” campaign. Even Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte in their anti-establishment vitriol promised change – a wall, and declaring war on drugs respectively.

Also, kleptocracy doesn’t roll easily off the tongue. Advertising 101: use simple language. It sticks better, like Ubah and Reformasi.

But decisions had been made upstairs. Work needed to be done. The task of organising the rally was assigned to the youth wings. The first lap: mobilising the states by doing field activities (leafleting and kopitiam talks) followed by a large ceramah in marginal parliamentary seats.

The second lap: the rally itself. Even as an ex-conference producer, I found both its scale and minutiae staggering. Such an event, packed with speeches, performances and other gimmicks should be done by an events company, not a disparate group of youths whose common ground was the struggle for a better Malaysia.

In a nutshell, the Harapan Youth were thrown into the deep end and made accountable for our decisions.

Enough  “anti-” campaigns, more nation-building

My team and I organised a forum titled “Can the millennials save Malaysia?” on Oct 25 2017. Many attendees expressed unhappiness at the negativity in Malaysian politics, including the rally.

I agree. It’s not enough to keep harping on BN’s faults. It’s also not enough for Harapan to promise more welfare schemes if we make it to Putrajaya. These schemes are necessary but they cannot be the sole reason why voters should support PH.

In 1949, then prime minister Ben Chifley from the Australian Labor Party said:

“I try to think of the Labor movement, not as putting an extra sixpence into somebody's pocket, or making somebody prime minister or premier, but as a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people.”

The challenge for Harapan is to resist the easy route of promising goodies the way BN has done and instead, craft a vision for the nation that appeals to all Malaysians.

Did any good come of the rally?

The “Love Malaysia, End Kleptocracy” rally was a public litmus test as to whether the four parties in Harapan could work together.

More importantly, coalition-building happened on the youth level. I previously wrote that youth are the leaders of tomorrow but we must be trained today. Despite the occasional youthful hotheadedness and some misgivings over the rally’s direction, we negotiated, delegated and executed the rally, while activating the grassroots and supporters.

Camaraderie was formed. There were light-hearted moments despite late meetings fueled by coffee. There were post-meeting mamak-stall conversations on many topics; race-based policies, religion, and the role of youth in politics across Southeast Asia. I was never told to mind my own business when we discussed issues related to Islam. Neither was I belittled or patronised for being an outspoken young woman.

We’re still working on crafting a vision for Malaysia. That takes time, serious soul-searching and input from the youth. But this rally has set us in motion. We’re on our way. Have hope.

I guess you could say the youth of Harapan did things right on the night of Oct 14. Perhaps now, we can focus on doing the right things.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.