Poll on Malaysian Young People

Youth...what an important stage of life. It`s the time when we could commit as many mistakes as our body and budget allow and yet, at the end of the day, could stand back and say "I will repent later," It was one of the most romantic phase in your life where if you have such a dull straight forward experience of being a youth, you will definitely be grasping for some white lies to tell your children on how your youthful days were adventurous and cool. They don't invent the term youth angst for nothing, right?

Having described youth in such a way, I wonder how's our own local youth doing by the way? Merdeka Centre conducted an opinion research among 1,505 youth in our country aged 18-32 years old. A news report on the survey can be found here .

Interesting findings are as follow;
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QUESTIONS & PERCENTAGE
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1.Expectation of Malaysian society
43% Treat various races and culture equally
27% Wanted a democratic country
18% Wanted Islam to play bigger role in society
6% Wanted a Malay-dominant society
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2. On issue of Morality 62% Government to regulate
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3.Concern about problems in their
71% Concerned immediate community
59% Never taken part in any community service
/volunteer activities.
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The poll has at least unravel some of the misconception about youth. Youth, typically are labelled as uncaring, complacent and abhor control or regulation. Surprisingly, 62% of them wants morality to be State-regulated and a much smaller percentage choose self-regulated or family regulated. Majority of youth according to the poll feel strongly about the issues around them but they definitely need a channel to voice their concern. Not some channels chaired by a group of old men declaring themselves "belia", they need some fresh progressive platform that appreciate their ideas and position as young people. Its the MTV era, and we have to do things the new way! ;). I wish to search for the complete finding of the survey and I will post it here, if I get it.

Meanwhile, are there any progressive young people collective in Malaysia? All is not lost, check out the links below;

1.Young people that likes to serve homeless people free food. You dont have to be a chef to join.
2.Five Arts Centre`s motley crew with their community project in Taman Medan and Selayang.
3.A bunch of youth and students that advocate for young people`s civil and political rights.
4. An unlisted "public university". I am not sure whether it still exist or not.
5.Regional collective. Interesting nevertheless.

Could be other groups.... Hey, I should start a directory of young people`s group on my blog! :)
Young people should start their own collectives and respond to their issues strategically.You don't need the adults to dictate your move and action. Historically, it has always been the young people who is the State`s strongest momentum for change. I`d say, let`s start now and bring change to the country. Amin.