There are far too many ‘Youth’ branded organizations and events presently which make the very word seem overrated at times. The burning question is, are they appealing to the real demographics of youth of today? Let alone engaging them successfully to make changes. The history of youth movement here is very much apparent dating back to pre-independence. They are the ‘conscience’ of society, if you may call it. Youth democracy awareness is rather closely associated with partisan politics in this country. To certain extend, this is thought as the only way to participate in the process of nation building. The truth is, there are many youths out there who would want to make a difference and need to feel their views appreciated. However, they would like to achieve this without joining any political parties. Ideally, they should be able to voice out their concerns creatively through music, film, visual art, writings, theatre, forums and many more avenues out there. How do you engage millions of youth of the world using a common space and platform today at real time? You guessed it. The social networking and media phenomenon is indeed changing the world as we speak. But most of us are very aware of how appealing it can be. But how can we use these tools effectively to actually shift the paradigm? Youths are indeed a very unpredictable lot. Their needs and appeals dynamically changes by the minute that it makes it very difficult to please. So how do we get their attention?

Here in .myFuture Foundation, we listen to youths carefully. Identify their preferences and satisfy their requests. We create projects that will be based on what will appeal to them and work to get the message out there. After all, they want to be heard and be significant in the society. Our partnership with Popfolio has brought you this fast growing social networking/media project, PopIN. Our approach is simple, effective and expandable. Engage the youths using pop culture while pushing socio-politics matters. It sounds experimental but that’s the beauty of it.

We believe that there are two types of youth in Malaysia. The obvious - Those who choose to know and they may want to participate actively or become an observer. The oblivious - Those who choose not to know but would love to express themselves in other preferred ways. It is the foundation’s role to engage both types in order for them to be heard. My previous PopMuda posts has revealed that it is possible to spread the message of life, humanity, race-relations and nation building through the avenues of music, film and sports. Not everything needs to be academically done. The society that binds us may prevent us being a democratically mature youth but believing that we will grow soon means we have got 70% of the job done. .myFuture Foundation is always on the lookout to work with youths and hear them out.

So do visit us at www.myfuturefoundation.my

Will the Youths of Malaysia get to this maturity of democracy one day? It’s entirely up to you. Make it happen.

http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk

Kharis Idris
Director
.myFuture Foundation