Dear Malaysian Youths, Your Country Needs You. Register as a Voter Today!

Malaysian youths are always up-to-date with news spread across social media, yet it is so hard to convince them to register as a voter.

It is never easy to convince one to do the right thing, and today I would like to try my luck on Malaysian youths age 21 and above.

Politics is never a popular topic among youths in Malaysia, which is especially true when some of them felt that their votes will not change anything in the Malaysian politic scene. With the opposition coalition winning the popular votes in the last general election (GE13), yet still losing to the current government, the confidence of Malaysians towards our democracy system is again weakened.

Do Not Give Up!

Being a youth myself, I understand the helplessness. I understand the frustration, and I call it the 'Political Fatigue' - The feeling that one vote would not change anything. The feeling that one vote would not be enough. The feeling that one vote would not create any impact.

True enough, there are times that I felt angry and tired towards the political scenes in Malaysia. Our government has not been delivering. To start, 1MDB scandal is a mess, which is one of the reason behind the weak investor sentiment in Malaysia for the past few years. Not only that, the continuous annual budget cut on several important segments of the country such as higher education will be detrimental to the already weak human capital and talent development in Malaysia.

On the other side of the story, the opposition coalition has not been having a good time as well. The disbandment of Pakatan Rakyat due to conflict of interest between PAS, PKR and DAP in 2015 caused Malaysians to doubt the ability of the newly formed Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition to reach to policies and leadership consensuses even if they take over the office in the coming election. Along the years, the opposition coalition has also been facing a hard time deciding on a proper shadow cabinet – a reflection of what our cabinet of ministers would be should the opposition take over the office, which is yet to be formed until today.

However, as strong as my Political Fatigue goes along the years, the idea of me being a Malaysian has always been keeping my spirit strong, and I am glad to meet friends that still keep up with the similar spirit as time goes by.

So ladies and gentlemen, friends and comrades.

The fact that no matter how different we are in terms of skin colour, beliefs and background, we are still Malaysians, and it is our responsibility to let our voice be heard and held our leaders accountable, which all of these can be done through our votes.

Do not lose hope towards our country, for if we give up now, we are not only giving up on our very own future, but also the future of the generations to come.

Register as a voter today (yes, today – 31/3/2017), as September 2017 would most probably be our next general election (a lot of opposition leaders are now urging people to sign up - get the message?). Find out how to register as a voter here.