THE world has seen a string of unexpected events unfold in the most devastating way ever in 2020, as many important operations contributing to economic well-being have opted for the digital working space.
According to Syerleena Abdul Rashid (PH-Seri Delima), the saying that ‘the future lies in the hands of the youth’ is no longer relevant as the youth are leaders of today.
“Long gone are the days where we rely on youth to only make a difference in the future. The future is now, and it is important that we all realise this and act accordingly to steer the involvement of young people in the society.
“One particular area under youth development in the state that is of utmost importance is leadership.
“I believe youth leadership should be focused on youths from various backgrounds, namely from rural to urban areas in Penang,” Syerleena said when debating Budget 2021 at the State Legislative Assembly in Dewan Sri Pinang today.
While debating, Syerleena proposed an initiative called ‘Local Youth Movement (Penggerak Belia Tempatan)’ to be introduced in the state, mainly to highlight and encourage youth involvement in politically related issues.
The programme had previously been introduced in Selangor.
Separately, while the ‘Sidang Muda Pulau Pinang’, a programme under the Penang Youth Development Corporation (PYDC) was a good initiative, Syerleena said the involvement of youth since 2016 was quite unimpressive.
“I would like to take this opportunity to request PYDC to review the elements in the programme to make it more interesting and youth-centred,” she added.
On another matter, Syerleena also emphasised the importance that should be given to employment issues in the state.
“For those who are employed, they are safe, but for fresh graduates, it is understandably a challenging period for them to land a job during these trying times of Covid-19 pandemic.
“Therefore, I would like to propose to the Penang government to introduce the ‘Hire-Graduate’ programme,” Syerleena added.
She also added that the basic idea of the programme would be to create a link between industrial companies in the state and fresh graduates.
Another area that Syerleena touched on in her speech was ways and means to further bolster the arts, culture and heritage sector in the state.
“Penang is extremely rich when it comes to historical monuments, heritage buildings and often leads in various state-of-the-art initiatives, but there is always room to further enhance this important sector.
“In order to further enhance the history as well as the identity of the state, I would like to propose to the state to establish a Local Arts Centre and Penang Arts Council,” she said.
Syerleena said these two establishments would carry out arts and culture-based activities in public areas, whereby mini stages would be set up to accommodate the activities.
Story by Kevin Vimal
Pix by Adleena Rahayu Ahmad Radzi