MALAYSIAN youth are angry and frustrated with the excessive politicking and constant undermining of the democratic process that has been a major roadblock on the reform agenda to steer the country forward.

This is also a reason why youths are taking matters into their own hands by staging street protests, they said.

Mohd Asraf Sharafi Mohd Azhar of Sekretariat Solidariti Rakyat (SSR) said while they cannot stop politicians from politicking, they can put pressure on them to do their jobs as lawmakers.

“We cannot expect politicians not to play politics. But we can always urge them to think and carry out their duties as elected representatives,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“In addition, we need to reform our political system immediately, such as the introduction of recall elections, restoring the function of Parliament in a more meaningful way, among others.

“The role of the people is very important to continue to push for these reforms to be made,” he said, adding that even under Pakatan Harapan, the reforms were slow.

PH, which came into power after the 14th general election, collapsed after 22 months due to the infamous “Sheraton move”.

After a week of uncertainty in February 2020, Muhyiddin Yassin was sworn in as prime minister on March 1, following the resignation of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who led PH.

Muhyiddin himself was then ousted after 17 months in office following the withdrawal of support by 15 Umno members.

Following that, Ismail Sabri Yaakob was installed as the third prime minister on August 20.

He is Malaysia’s third prime minister in under than four years and marked the return of Umno to the top, a party which the voters kicked out in 2018.

Qyira Yusri, co-founder of the Undi18 movement, said the constant change in government has led to a serious trust deficit, especially when an elected government was replaced by one formed from back-door dealings.

“Trust and faith in public institutions erode when there is lack of transparency and back-door dealings.

“We have to educate ourselves and push for reforms that will prevent people from losing trust in their votes,” she said.

Qyira is, however, optimistic things can get better under Ismail.

“I’m naturally an optimistic person, so I think it’s not intentional that the PM included a small mention of youth in his first speech.

“I feel strongly that if this government wants to establish itself strongly and show good faith, it needs to reopen Parliament and push forward the reforms it often touts about, so the people know they are genuine.”

She was referring to Ismail’s inaugural speech in which he invited the youth to work with him on national recovery from Covid-19 and economic downturn.

Undi18 is pushing for the government to implement lowering the voting age to 18.

Although the motion was passed in Parliament on July 16 last year with bipartisan support, it has not been implemented.

The Election Commission cited the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns as the reason for this.

According to Undi18, approximately 1.2 million youths between the ages of 18 and 20 by July this year would be affected if an election were to take place anytime before September next year.

Price of betrayal

Meanwhile, Muda co-founder Thanussha Francis Xavier said the people are paying the price in the power struggle between parties and politicians.

“Many people, especially the youth, put in a lot of time and effort during the 14th general election to deliver a win for the opposition.

“We were betrayed because Muhyiddin, Zuraida Kamaruddin (Ampang MP), Mohamed Azmin Ali (Gombak MP) and others chose to be selfish to further their own political ambitions.

“The people are paying the price of this betrayal as Muhyiddin’s administration failed miserably in managing the pandemic, not just economical consequences but also lives were lost,” she said.

She said this betrayal and the government’s failure led the youth to take matters into their own hands and protest but they face intimidation by the authorities.

“It came at a cost as we then became targets of police intimidation. However, we did get a win with Muhyiddin resigning but delivering the numbers needed for the opposition to regain control of the government is beyond us.”

SSR, which is composed of 20 youth groups, has organised three protests starting with the #BenderaHitam protest on social media on July 3, where the group encouraged Malaysians to fly a black flag to show their dissatisfaction towards the government.

This was followed by a smaller protest in Dataran Merdeka on July 17 and a black flag convoy on July 31.

On August 19, the group held a candlelight vigil for victims of Covid-19. The vigil ended with the arrest of several SSR members. Thirty-one of its members were also issued with a RM2,000 compound.

A protest that was supposed to take place on August 21 was subsequently cancelled after Muhyiddin resigned.

Police nonetheless got a court order to stop the rally from going ahead. They had also blocked several roads in the city on the day, despite the organisers informing them that the rally had been cancelled.

In the lead up to GE15, which is less than 20 months away, Thanussha said she hopes that the opposition parties will unite and prioritise the people.

“Put more fresh candidates and young people that can bring a new brand of politics to Malaysia.” – August 28, 2021.