KUCHING: The Rise of Social Efforts (ROSE) has welcomed the suggestion to introduce a syllabus in schools to guide youngsters to be responsible voters before they are automatically registered as voters at 18.
Chairperson Ann Teo said the responsibility to inculcate responsible or smart voters among the young fell on each of the stakeholders.
“We cannot solely rely on the Election Commission alone to educate young voters.
“Thus, civil society organisations, political parties, educators and even parents must play their roles in building responsible citizens,” she on yesterday (June 17).
ROSE, she said, welcomed Minister for Youth, Sport and Entrepreneur Development Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah’s recent statement for age-appropriate civic and voter education to be introduced in upper secondary schools.
Teo said more than 675,077 Sarawakians had now been added to the electoral roll following the implementation of Undi18, effective December 2021.The total number of voters was 1,927,750 as of Dec 31, 2021; with 28.54 per cent of the age group of 18 to 29, can and will vote in the coming 15th General Election.
She said the ideal scenario was that everyone in this age-group would go out to vote as they are the ones whose lives and future would be most impacted or affected by policies and decisions made by the government of the day.
“Whether they will go out to choose their elected representative in Parliament depends on what we the above stakeholders do from now on.”
Teo said the increase in the number of young voters would be meaningless if they do not know the value of their vote nor bother to participate as voters in the election.
“Civic education has been a core focus of our organisation’s goals and we run activity-based and interactive civic/voter education workshops such as Bengkel Kesedaran Demokrasi Belia in 2020, to increase awareness and knowledge of participants about the role and responsibilities, rights and duties of a citizen in a parliamentary democracy.”
ROSE welcomes enquiries and collaborations from any educational institutions or schools or other organisations within Sarawak, and it can be contacted via email my@sarawakrose.org
