COMMENT | Are we supporting youths as future leaders in M'sia?

COMMENT | I welcome the suggestions written by Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang which is to provide more opportunities for young Malaysians to lead and resolve national problems. I strongly agree that this should be the epoch of millennials. The key question - is our country doing enough to support aspiring youths as future leaders?

The answer is not very straightforward. Although the labor force participation among young people is gradually increasing every year in Malaysia, I could say there is a relative absence of youths holding top or senior positions, whether in private or government sectors.

The default setting always follows traditional bureaucratic red-tape. The long-serving and older workers are first in line for top positions. For that reason, we have seen young Malaysian talents going abroad and being appreciated in other countries.

Age discrimination is a factor that limits the development of young leaders. We may hear some quarters in the country calling for "youth empowerment", but how have we empowered our youths?

Young people are being treated less favorably because of their age. We see much of this in the political scene - older parliamentarian calling younger lawmakers "budak" (child) for no logical reason and young Veveonah Mosibin was even labeled a liar once...