So, ‘bro’, what are your plans for Malaysia’s future?

Raja Sara Petra

Pakatan Harapan’s Youth and Sports Minister, Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, is so excited that Indonesian president Joko Widodo called him ‘bro’. In fact, Syed’s first ‘policy statement’ was to ask Malaysians to call him ‘bro’ instead of ‘YB’. This, in English, is called reverse snobbery.

Syed is like a kid with a new toy. If he has got over the ‘bro’ turn on, can he get down to business and tell us what he has in mind regarding youth development. Syed must remember that the youth in most parts of the world are anti-establishment. And today Pakatan Harapan is the establishment. So expect the youth to be critical of the government. And if Pakatan Harapan reduces the voting age to 18 there is going to be a bigger pool of anti-establishment voters.

The youth nowadays want to work less and play more. They want to holiday overseas and shop till they drop. But in Malaysia salaries are low and the cost of living is high. So Malaysia is not going to be the heaven that Pakatan Harapan has promised them. And once the youth begin to realise that Malaysia under Pakatan Harapan is no different to Malaysia under Barisan Nasional there is going to be a ‘revolt’. So what is Syed’s plan to address this?

Yes, Syed, get off cloud nine and start doing your job. The 100 days is counting and you have only 35 days left. Come 100 days the youth who voted for you are going to ask, “What has changed since 9 May 2018?” And the answer is going to be, “Nothing has changed.”