UMNO YOUTH WALKING THE TALK THROUGH #KATAKITA - @azwanbro

Malaysia used to be a country that thrived on peace and harmony even though our population is made up of so many diverse race, religion, and culture.

However, times have changed. With Internet, our people now have unlimited access to everything that is going on all around the world.

We can see the practices that are carried out in other countries and the effect they have on the people and this automatically result in us comparing our situation to others.

The youth especially are more aware of what they want and what they believed are needed to ensure a better quality of life.

But with the great knowledge, comes great expectation that some of our leaders have yet to comprehend. So they ignore the voices of the Rakyat and carry on with the ways that they are familiar with.

The result is clear as we see people marching on the streets, screaming and shouting for their voices to be heard and for their opinions to be taken seriously.

This is not the proper way to change the course of the country, and the Rakyat knows this. They do it anyway as they believe they are left with no other options.

What they are asking for is a status quo. One that should be looked into and delivered, moderately.

The leaders are starting to take notice though, and this was reflected in 2014's UMNO General Assembly where the importance of engaging the youth especially, was mooted over and over again.

That is a good start but it is time for us to actually start walking the talk and focus our efforts into getting more youths involved in the country's political discourse.

UMNO Youth, under the administration of YB Khairy Jamaluddin and I, realising this, has made it a commitment to bring a change not only to the party, but also to the nation.

It is important to note that the youth's minds and knowledge have expended and they now have high expectation for their leaders to be on par with those from the top developed countries.

Hence why we, leaders and representatives of the nation's voice, have to find out the wants and the needs of the Rakyat and work towards delivering what we can, and explain to them of what we can't.

Umno Youth has introduced a program under the #katakita where we aim to work as the eyes and ears for the leadership, for the benefit of both parties.

The youth will have their voices heard and presented through proper channels, and the country’s leaders will be in the loop of what are expected of them.

This week, I will be leading a #katakita tour where an estimated of over 1000 Malaysian students from five districts in the United Kingdom - London, Cardiff, Nottingham, Manchester and Liverpool - will be engaged in an open forum that aimed to provide just that, as well as making moderation and progressive politics a reality.

Through this we hope to be able to have a healthy dialogue and debates with students of all races and help them, and us, understand the mechanisms of the country’s politics.

We also hope to learn more about what the nation's current generation wants to see in their leaders and the direction they believe we should be heading towards, in line with Malaysia's 2020 vision.

Promoting the concept of moderation is not easy when the opposition parties have been preaching against it. Open forum where we can discuss face to face, in a moderate environment and in a moderate manner is probably the best method to create a moderate nation.

Three #katakita programs have been carried out by Umno Youth since November this year and the response we have received was a testament of how important it is for all leaders to step down for a moment and communicate with the Rakyat.

That is the only way we can understand them and provide them with exactly what they need, not what we think they need. Remember that the leaders need to be approachable so the people can also relate to them.

The leaders need to be moderate, setting the example for the rest to emulate.

Maybe through a proper moderate channel of communication, we can avoid further incidents of extremism where students and youth feel the need to scream, rally or hold a demonstration that only result in them jeopardising their future.

BN Youth hope that this program will catch on nationwide and soon be carried out by other leaders too, regardless of which party they come from.