The Department of Sports and Youth Policies presented the Rakan Muda, dedicated to boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 30. The plan, promoted in 1994 and archived for a long time, aims to promote leadership, contact with nature and physical education. Other ministries and private companies also participate.
Kuala Lumpur () – The Malaysian Department of Sport and Youth Policies has reactivated the Rakan Muda program, which has been shelved for a long time, and is aimed at boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 30 to offer them opportunities for growth in personal training and group leadership. The reactivation of this long-awaited initiative was announced by Minister Hannah Yeoh last May during a meeting at the Concorde Club press conference, as anticipated by the newspaper The Star, but it has taken shape in recent days. A plan that aims to “bring together” young people under the tutelage of government agencies, which will provide them with useful skills and information for everyday life.
Originally, Rakan Muda was a youth program drawn up in 1994 by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as part of the so-called “Vision 2020”. It included leadership training, nature activities and physical education, among others. In the restart of the project, the Ministry of Sports will collaborate closely with its colleagues in Education, bringing together other broader projects and initiatives under its banner.
The new project was presented on June 25 by Minister Yeoh and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and also includes seminars on democracy and the institutional process, taking into account that the voting age was recently lowered to 18 years. Also included in the program is the Rakan Litar plan, which fosters the interest of young people in motor sports, to which are added other plans and lifestyles, to expand the training offer as much as possible and satisfy the requests of the participants. of the project.
On the official Rakan Muda website, its sponsors include major companies and strategic partners, as well as instructions on how to use the logo. The president of the Negaraku Brigade, Khairul Nizam Mohd Sopery, asked employers to allow their employees to participate in the program, also open to young professionals, because “it promotes positive values for the future of the nation.”
Prime Minister Anwar’s hope, as reported by the executive cabinet in a note, is that the program is in line with government policies. In fact, among its guiding principles is the desire to contribute to the formation of a “generation that applies human values with mutual respect, embraces and supports kindness, brotherhood and technology, and hates corruption, hypocrisy and racism” . The prime minister became personally involved in supporting and launching the programme, to raise a new generation “to unite the country instead of dividing it”, as “his grandparents and parents tried to do”. Of course, the Rakan Muda renaissance and the hype surrounding it is clearly a move by the executive to win over the support of the youth against establishment rivals, but it is also a response to the country’s deep need for unity.
