Youths were told not to join party politics if they want to contribute to the nation, as a developed country needs more individuals with humanistic values.

Academician Teo Lee Ken said Parliament is merely a manifestation or technical aspect of democracy, but society’s biggest problem is a lack of intellect and morals.

“Democracy is not just about joining the DAP or PKR or participating in rallies but how to be human,” Teo ( left ) told a group of 30 at Saturday’s ‘Democracy and Youth’ session in Penang.

“A developed nation must have a strong literature and cultural foundations. We don’t just need YBs and policy makers, we need educators, journalists as well,” he said the Karpal Singh Penang Learning Centre.

“Democracy is not just about system of governance or Parliament, our focus should be how to develop the individual - humanism as education so that he or she can engage in the battle of ideas and participate in the public sphere,” Teo stressed.

Teo said if the country develops a strong culture of debate and discussion, automatically  democracy will be develop.

Whatever laws enacted in Parliament will not help society if there is no supporting structure at the bottom to support the idea, added the co-lecturer in the department of Malay studies, National University of Singapore.

“So become ulamas or teachers... become anything but but not rock stars. We need to study literature (sastera)... We don’t want to know about Anwar Ibrahim or Lim Kit Siang only because these are big figures, we want to also know about the senior citizens, the road sweepers and what their lives are like,” said Teo, a representative of the  Diskopi group.

“Who will talk about their lives? Without them, our concept of democracy will not expand.”

Accompanying Teo at the two-hour talk were Penang state’s ‘youngest’ cabinet member Dr Afif Bahardin ( left ), Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari and municipal councillor A Kumaresan.

Zairil said it is only a matter time that a coalition like BN reaches its deathbed as it is the fourth-longest ruling party in the world.

Zairil said BN is fourth in line as the longest serving party after the Communist Party of China, the Workers Party in North Korea and Communist Party of Vietnam.

“It is awaiting its death. A party chosen by the people cannot last forever,” said the DAP vice- chairperson.

“In the last general election, the coalition has lost the popular vote and managed to obtain only 47 percent of the votes,” he added.

“I am confident - the sooner the better - before all the money runs out, BN will loose,” quipped the youngest MP in Parliament.

Renewal process

Zairil said BN, too, will go through a renewal process after it lost and perhaps youths will join the parties in the coalition then.

He said then there will be a two-party system and there will be a contest based on ideas and policies, which is the best for Malaysian politics.

Afif said for democracy to function effectively, contesting parties must practice value-based politics.

He said Umno, the ruling party, has no choice but to catch up and appears to have people who can nowadays talk about ideas.

“They are forced to. In Umno, its Youth leader (and Youth and Sports Minister) Khairy Jamaluddin is forced to confront the situation and say that Umno is a progressive party,” Afif said.

However, he questioned the Umno Youth’s progressiveness when it defends the British legacy of the Sedition Act, which has been repeatedly used to clamp down on dissent in the country.

“The Umno youth is playing old politics. For example, its members barged into the Penang legislative assembly in May.

“This is because there is no discussion in the party about Rempuh democracy, freedom of speech or justice. These are concepts in the federal constitution but they chose not to practice it,” said the PKR Youth national deputy chief.