Discernment from the Youth Standpoint upon Young Leaderships in Politics: A Case Study in Malaysia

Abstract

In the earlier days of politics, youths were apathetic in the field of politics as the culture of politics was more suited to the older generation. This is because the older generation had more opportunities to cast partisan votes and developed stronger affiliations to the party for which they voted. However, with the ability to access information and engage online for everyone, this heterogeneous culture has given Malaysian youths a new and tangible existence in the scene of politics. Therefore, the purposes of this study is to explore the issues faced by youths in politics, how can aspiring politicians communicate effectively with youths today and to understand how does political communication work in youth circles. The study interviewed fifteen respondents, which all of them were university students between the ages of 18 and 35. The data collection strategy was an in-depth interview followed by a semistructured interview protocol. Through the thematic analysis, this study found that there are still barriers surrounding politics, which are age, experience, and general perception between old and new politicians, including education, which seems to be a recurring topic. Furthermore, this research also spotted out that females do not have a significant share of voice in politics. This has concluded that the youth political environment remains an undeveloped area in Malaysia.

Promoting Effective Political Socialisation Strategies for Youth Leadership Development among Universiti Putra Malaysia Student Leaders

“…Leadership development facilitates developing individual self-awareness, community relationship building (Gutherie, 2021; p. 9) on account of worldwide digital communication. Youths have become… a vocal segment that processes more information quickly due to the availability of technology (Nathen et al, 2021). Given the current realities, leadership should no longer be viewed as one-man show but a property of the system that emerges in various ways owing to different situational factors (Bolden et al, 2023;P.…”

“…11). Youth development carries the process of preparing people to meet challenges through a dedicated, coordinated and progressive programme development that is "supported by experience to help them achieve competencies" (Nathen et al, 2021;p. 2474).…”

“…As an agent of political socialisation, institutions of higher learning provide conducive atmosphere for youth leaders to learn political ideals capable of shaping their orientations and guiding future political behaviour. UPM trains young people to gradually become "competent decision makers" (Nathen et al, 2021) In a demonstration of talent development, a respondent singlehandedly organised Music seminar as a required programmes for the semester. I conducted a Seminar in my first year when Amir Jahari was invited from Sarawak to give talks on how knowledge is essential to becoming a musician [SRC#9].…”