KUCHING: The current national leaders and political parties need to return to policy-centric politics rather politics that are driven by ideologies and partisanship, said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.
“To me, while everything is politics, not everything needs to be politicised. We need to train our youth to separate political issues from ideologies.
“I have an aspiration to see politics driven by policies although many might view it as boring. I say let’s make politics boring again,” he said during an online interview on Borneo Channel on Thursday night.
Dr Yii said the current national politics, although interesting to many, is marred by scandals and dramas.
He also said it is pertinent for young people to be educated to differentiate between politics and political parties.
“I still remember the day when we debated the amendment to Article 119(1) of the Federal Constitution where we not only lowered the minimum age for voting to eighteen years old but also lowered the minimum age to be an elected representative.
“I am very much in support of that as it is monumental and a game changer as seen in developed countries where youth are given allowed to vote,” he said.
Tupong assemblyman Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman, who was also present, said youth political participation was important as the nation could not escape from change.
“We need to educate our youth on the importance of voting and we need to empower them so that they can think for themselves,” he said.
Fazzrudin, however, said with the voting age being lowered to eighteen, there are still fears that irresponsible groups could influence the youth negatively.
“We hope that no parties will exploit the group. My concern is that when they are still in school, their focus should be on education.
“Having said that, we still have to educate the rest of the community on politics, government, and governance in order to produce positive impact on the nation,” he said.
