Crucial to involve youths at the Asean level: DG
Published on: Saturday, March 07, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Youths of today need to be exposed to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to understand the importance of the 10-member grouping.Asean-Malaysia National Secretariat Director-General Dato' Muhammad Sharul Ikram said the future of Asean rests in the hands of the youths and it is crucial they know of Asean. "Almost 60 per cent of the people within Asean are below 35 years of age, thus making them within the youth category. They make up the future potential of developing an Asean community."The year 2015 is a very important year for Malaysia as it is the year we chair Asean. ADVERTISEMENT Therefore, in an effort to bring awareness to the youths, we hold programmes like this to bring exposure on Asean to the students, youths and stakeholders in Sabah."He said this after a forum on Publicity and Public Diplomacy, organised by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, at Universiti Malaysia Sabah, here, Friday.Sharul said the forum would also help youths who want to get involved with Asean know the ways to do so."Part of the Government's role is to open doors for the youths although at the end of the day it depends on the individuals themselves to get involved or not."ADVERTISEMENT He also touched on volunteerism within the youths where he called on universities to begin introducing volunteerism to its students."UMS should consider getting in touch with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia which has long had volunteer programmes with some even involving Asean countries.
ADVERTISEMENT
"It should also begin by having a club if it doesn't have one already as to get involved with volunteerism, we need to first start small. If we do not start, we cannot achieve any goal." Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
He also said youths should be internationalised to be more aware of world issues and with social media such as Twitter and Facebook, these are places where internationalisation of the youths is most carried out.The two-day programme, which began on Friday, will also feature a forum on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 that would be moderated by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman.