Youth Parliament of Malaysia


The Youth Parliament of Malaysia is a youth council and simulation of the parliamentary proceedings of the Parliament of Malaysia for youth aged between 18 and 25. The Youth Parliament give young people an insight into the workings of the Parliament of Malaysia and raise their awareness of the working of government. Three sessions are held each year, each involving 133 elected members.
In the 2014 election, 8,632 from 171,094 youth registered voters aged between 15 and 40 across the Malaysian states have done voting in the two-weeks polling day. The nationwide low turnout is just 5.05%. Only 171,094 from about 12 million Malaysian youths registered their name in the official website of the Youth Parliament. It shows the youth participation in the inaugural election was disappointing.
Other related programme involving Malaysian youth is .

Timeline

The format of the unicameral Youth Parliament of Malaysia resembles that of the actual Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of Parliament of Malaysia, All the 119 members undergo the orientation session for four days, and also briefed at a pre-sitting session. The delegations are then spread out in different committees, each committee with a particular topic. This ensures a maximized cultural diversity in the committee and serves as a strong incentive to socialize and make friends with people from the committee. The committees debates a certain topic extensively and drafts a resolution, a non-binding piece of legislation outlining the key issues of the topic and proposing solutions. The drafting process is followed by lobbying, during which delegates may debate and propose amendments for other resolutions. The session ends with a General Assembly, resolutions and amendments are debated and voted upon by all of the delegates. During voting, the resolutions received would be given rankings and preferences. Any successful resolutions are then forwarded to the Attorney-General's Chambers, Cabinet of Malaysia and Parliament of Malaysia. Question time also included involving the Ministers and Deputy Ministers related with the question to give oral answers in the Youth Parliament.
However, unlike the Dewan Rakyat sitting, there will be no government and opposition sides, but the members will sit according to their respective committee. There were nine committees altogether namely, the Socio-Economics; International and Diplomatic Relations; Security, Law and Integrity; Education and Careers; as well as Culture, Sports, Patriotism and Integration. Other than that, Infrastructure, Development and Environment; Community Development and Health; Technology and Innovation; as well as Human Capital.
As a model Parliament for young people, the Youth Parliament of Malaysia is patterned after the Dewan Rakyat although its membership is smaller than that of the Dewan Rakyat. Wherever possible, the Youth Parliament of Malaysia follows the rules of procedures and conduct of business as close to the Dewan Rakyat as practical. However, practices from other Parliaments are also adopted to expose Malaysian Youth to comparative parliamentary practices. Standing Order of Youth Parliament of Malaysia are provided to new members at the time of Orientation after their selection.

Election procedure

Any Malaysian citizen aged between 15 and 25 is eligible to register as the voters in the official website of the Youth Parliament. The quick and simple online registration requires the person to give valid personal information. Any registered voters aged between 18 and 25 may qualify to become nominator and candidate. The qualification criteria can be referred in the official website. The nomination open for two weeks. The successful shortlisted candidates may use social media to campaign; the campaign is open for two weeks. After the campaign week ended, the registered voters have a right to vote online as many as quota available for their respective states through the official website. There are limit quota member allocated for every state according to the youth populations, using the scales: 1 member to 100,000 youth population. As a comparison, the youth voters from Perlis allowed to choose two candidates to represent Perlis to the Youth Parliament while the youth voters from Selangor can choose 25 candidates to represent Selangor to the Youth Parliament. The polling open for two weeks and the result would be announced two days after the closing day of polling. The election uses the plurality-at-large voting, a non-proportional voting system for electing several representatives simultaneously from a single state.

Composition

In the Youth Parliament sessions, every members shall be referred according to their representing states together with their unique number.
The total membership of Youth Parliament is 138. The breakdown of membership is as follows:
State / federal territoryYouth populations Seats Seat name
Perlis100,8002Perlis 01, Perlis 02
Kedah791,10010Kedah 01, Kedah 02, Kedah 03, Kedah 04, Kedah 05, Kedah 06, Kedah 07, Kedah 08, Kedah 09, Kedah 10
Kelantan654,30010Kelantan 01, Kelantan 02, Kelantan 03, Kelantan 04, Kelantan 05, Kelantan 06, Kelantan 07, Kelantan 08, Kelantan 09, Kelantan 10
Terengganu460,3005Terengganu 01, Terengganu 02, Terengganu 03, Terengganu 04, Terengganu 05
Penang644,2007Pulau Pinang 01, Pulau Pinang 02, Pulau Pinang 03, Pulau Pinang 04, Pulau Pinang 05, Pulau Pinang 06, Pulau Pinang 07
Perak936,10010Perak 01, Perak 02, Perak 03, Perak 04, Perak 05, Perak 06, Perak 07, Perak 08, Perak 09, Perak 10
Pahang636,1007Pahang 01, Pahang 02, Pahang 03, Pahang 04, Pahang 05, Pahang 06, Pahang 07
Selangor2,472,40025Selangor 01, Selangor 02, Selangor 03, Selangor 04, Selangor 05, Selangor 06, Selangor 07, Selangor 08, Selangor 09, Selangor 10, Selangor 11, Selangor 12, Selangor 13, Selangor 14, Selangor 15, Selangor 16, Selangor 17, Selangor 18, Selangor 19, Selangor 20, Selangor 21, Selangor 22, Selangor 23, Selangor 24, Selangor 25
F. T. Kuala Lumpur & F. T. Putrajaya771,2009WP. Kuala Lumpur 01, WP. Kuala Lumpur 02, WP. Kuala Lumpur 03, WP. Kuala Lumpur 04, WP. Kuala Lumpur 05, WP. Kuala Lumpur 06, WP. Kuala Lumpur 07, WP. Kuala Lumpur 08, and WP. Putrajaya 01
Negeri Sembilan420,3005Negeri Sembilan 01, Negeri Sembilan 02, Negeri Sembilan 03, Negeri Sembilan 04, Negeri Sembilan 05, Negeri Sembilan 06
Malacca350,1005Melaka 01, Melaka 02, Melaka 03, Melaka 04, Melaka 05
Johor1,372,50014Johor 01, Johor 02, Johor 03, Johor 04, Johor 05, Johor 06, Johor 07, Johor 08, Johor 09, Johor 10, Johor 11, Johor 12, Johor 13, Johor 14
Labuan40,1001WP. Labuan 01
Sabah1,142,00014Sabah 01, Sabah 02, Sabah 03, Sabah 04, Sabah 05, Sabah 06, Sabah 07, Sabah 08, Sabah 09, Sabah 10, Sabah 11, Sabah 12, Sabah 13, Sabah 14
Sarawak1,018,30014Sarawak 01, Sarawak 02, Sarawak 03, Sarawak 04, Sarawak 05, Sarawak 06, Sarawak 07, Sarawak 08, Sarawak 09, Sarawak 10, Sarawak 11, Sarawak 12, Sarawak 13, Sarawak 14
Malaysia11,809,800138