Pakatan Youth set to ride with the rakyat

Stuck on a long KTM Komuter ride with no company? Worry not! Soon, you'll find a Pakatan Rakyat Youth member cosying up to you for conversation.

Starting mid-December, members of the PAS, DAP and PKR Youth wings will join the public transport crush in a bid to win over young voters aged 40 and below.

PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin said they have opted to do this up to the next general election to understand the plight of the people.

"Conceptually, it is different to a normal tour which is conducted with car convoys,” he told reporters today.

"We will be lining up to buy tickets, getting on buses and trains, interacting with those on board and distributing our pamphlets and information."

He said that taxi drivers will find new passengers as well.

He said the tour, to kick off after the Youth wings' joint retreat on Dec 4 - will start in Pakatan-held states and move on to states that it is focusing to win over - like Malacca, Johor and Negri Sembilan.

There will also be stronger focus on youths in rural and semi-rural areas who may not be getting information through the Internet, like their urban counterparts.

Besides making friends on public transport, the Youth wings will look at engaging youth clubs like football fanclubs and having tweet-ups with Twitter users.

"Our programmes will be more laid back and people-friendly," Shamsul Iskandar said.

From the meetings, Pakatan also hopes to run surveys to further understand the gripes of the electorate.

"From our recent survey, we found the economic burden faced by the youth is real," he said, adding that Pakatan activists will also review the state of public transport.

‘Youth are angry’

DAP Youth committee member Zairil Khir Johari, also present today, said youth voters can be the king-makers in the next election.

"The youth vote is an important element in the 13th general election. Never before has the number of new voters leaped by two million, most of who are aged between 20 and 30 years," he said.

Asked about the level of support from rural and young voters so far, PAS Youth chief Nasruddin Hassan (left) said it is encouraging.

"In general, the sentiment is for change as the promised transformational programmes have been disappointing.

"The feedback that we get is that the youth are angry and are questioning BN's moves.”

Among trigger points for the annoyance he said, have been the recent arrests of 13 individuals under the soon-to-be-repealed Internal Security Act, which "toys with the rakyat's feelings".