#6 Youth Advocacy: Debates, Discourse and Political Participation with Syed Saddiq

Episode 6 is joined by YB @syedsaddiq, acting Member of Parliament for Muar and former Minister of Youth and Sports. Saddiq is also the co-founder of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA - @partimuda_ ) and was instrumental to the constitutional amendment that saw the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 years old. A youth advocate and proponent of debates, discourse, and critical thinking, we discussed all things youth-related including political participation, unemployment, and underemployment as well as mental health.

In particular, we discussed Saddiq's journey as a debater, speaker, and politician. We also discussed the following data points:

1) Unemployment and underemployment: In September 2020, the Ministry of Higher Education said 75,000 out of 300,000 fresh graduates are expected to be unemployed in 2021. Further, 41,161 out of 330,557 graduates from 2019 are still unemployed. Youth unemployment rate in Malaysia is at 12 percent. Even in 2019, a study by the Labour Force Survey found that there were 1.13 million underemployed graduates doing SPM-qualification jobs.

2) Political Apathy: In 2017, a Public Opinion Survey involving 604 respondents aged 21 to 30 found that 70% of them were disinterested in politics and almost 40% of them were not registered to vote. In March 2017, statistics from the Election Commission showed that out of the 3.8 million eligible Malaysians who had not registered to vote, two-thirds were aged between 21 and 30. However, since then, the voting age has been reduced to 18 with tremendous bipartisan support and Malaysia held its first digital parliament that saw 222 youth representatives speaking and nearly 6,300 young Malaysians applying.

3) Mental Health: In Malaysia, the 2019 National Health and Morbidity Survey noted that 424,000 youths and children suffered from mental health problems. Since the lockdown measures were imposed, the Ministry of Health has received a high number of psychosocial-related calls regarding mental health. Students are faring the worst, especially those sitting for SPM and STPM, with your #SuaraPelajar padlet board receiving over 1000 responses where students expressed their worries about returning to school to sit for their examinations.

We ended the episode with Saddiq responding to the following imagined scenarios:

Scenario 1: One of the participants of Parlimen Digital, Yodhin, was very inspired and empowered to join the political process and was thrilled about the voting age being lowered. However, with the amount of infighting happening with political parties, continued backdoor politicking, and the recent declaration of emergency, Yodhin is now more frustrated and disenchanted about politics. He feels apathetic and disinterested. You want to convert his frustration into action. What do you tell him?

Scenario 2: Pretend you have given your Thunder Bold class on Public Speaking, which is the 3rd class after Critical Thinking. It is the Q&A portion of the class and you noticed a consistent trend in the questions posed to you. These centered around participants having a lack of confidence to speak and express themselves. Many of the participants think that their opinions don’t matter or are not good enough to vocalize. Right before ending the session, you want to motivate them to be more confident and empowered. What do you say?

Notable Timestamps

[02:46] Saddiq’s journey behind Youth Advocacy

[04:43] How to promote better discourse and discussions in Malaysia

[06:21] Is politics the best way to realize change?

[07:47] Whether debating is accessible

[10:12] Saddiq’s biggest challenges

[13:53] MUDA and alignment of values

[15:21] Biggest takeaway from political journey

[17:50] Youth unemployment and underemployment

[23:26] Youth political participation

[28:58] Youth voices and mental health

[33:44] Scenario 1: Youth political apathy

[36:37] Scenario 2: Finding confidence in your voice

[39:56] Why Saddiq seeks to speak

Full transcript here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gDydN0w8cqSSivpvhzcayC4ypQi5KTDu/view?usp=sharing