POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF MINORITY YOUTH IN MALAYSIA

This paper aims to present the political participation of six ethnic minority youth , namely the Baba Nyonya, Portuguese, Chitty, Sikh, Orang Asli, and Siamese in Peninsular Malaysia. Political studies that are often focused on the majorityethnicity have led to the importance of the ethnic minority studies being address in explaining the problem of social inequality encountered. Although these minority ethnic groups are small in number, they are also an important bloc in some densly-populated parliamentary constituencies. In such area, they are the “king maker” when there is a fierce competition between the two contesting parties. The quantitative research approach using the survey method was carried out in this study. A total of 300 respondents from six minority ethnic groups aged 21 to 40 years were involved in this study. The data was analyzed using statistical test. The findings show that ethnic minority youth are moderately involved in Malaysian politics. There are 47.7% of the respondentswho wish to vote for the ruling party in the coming GE- 14.This phenomenon provides the importance of etnic minority youth in helping to restore and balance support to the ruling party in the coming general election. The insignificant participation of ethnic minority youth not only in voting but in the democratic processes as affected the community development.

Keywords: Youth, Minority Ethnic, Political Participation

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