BERSATU’S youth wing, Armada, plans to hold weekly town hall sessions to increase two-way engagement with the public on a range of public policy issues.

The “Bicara Wawasan 2020” aims to engage Malaysians on a wide range of topics with the goal of using public opinion for policy-making, said Armada chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman.

“The point that we want to send is that when we take over the government, we will include the input and suggestions that we get,” he said.

“Previously we always had mass ceramahs, like the one in Terengganu where 2,000 people came down and Kedah 8,000 but it was a one-way traffic,” he told reporters during a fundraising dinner by Armada in Gombak last night.

“What differentiates this town hall from the typical TN50 town hall is that we want to get direct policy input from them so that we can automatically take it in and make it our policies.”

The town hall sessions, which will be led by party leaders and others from Pakatan Harapan (PH), will include the participation of community leaders, targeted groups and NGOs.

Armada’s previous town hall session, the Nothing to Hide 2.0 forum, was marred by violence when members of the audience threw around chairs, shoes and flares towards the stage where PH chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad was speaking.

The forum was to give Dr Mahathir and Prime Minister Najib Razak a platform to debate the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal and other issues. Najib, however, did not show. – August 28, 2017.