Kit Siang to youth: Dream big, right the wrongs and injustices in society

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 — DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has turned to the youth, daring them to dream big to achieve their full potentials to steer the country on the right path.

The Iskandar Puteri MP, in his speech to Malaysian students at the Raintree Hotel in Chennai, India yesterday, expressed his confidence in the abilities of local youth of one day achieving greatness for the country.

He said such confidence afforded to the youth is also the sentiment shared by those in government, evident in the recent unanimous decision to lower the voting age from 21-years-old to 18, while enforcing automatic voter registrations.

“My advice for the youth of Malaysia; dare to have big dreams for the country and to right the wrongs and injustices in society,” he said in his speech.

Among the other topics Lim touched during his speech was the country’s vision to achieve a respectable ranking in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI), pointing out how the youth of today played a big role in hopes of achieving this goal. 

He said to obtain the ranking, the government will have to start with educational reforms to improve the local education standards to be on par with developed nations. 

Lim elaborated saying reforms such as setting the schooling age to start at five-years old, making secondary schooling compulsory, developing more student-centric teaching methods, and affording better perks with lesser workloads for teachers would be needed to kick-start the reforms.

“Dare we set our sight for such world achievements for the future of Malaysia and be prepared for the hard work and sacrifices with such goals?

“These are questions which the youth of today should be asking,” he said in his speech.

The Pakatan Harapan government were recently able to pass through the constitutional amendment that saw the legitimate voting age be lowered from 21 years old to 18, in a move that received support from both the political blocs.