Khairy – a voice for young Malaysians

The newly-appointed Youth and Sports Minister is chock-full of ideas to address all the concerns of the younger generation, particularly urban youths

PUTRAJAYA: Khairy Jamaluddin has pledged to alleviate the concerns of young Malaysians across the country amid loss of their support for ruling Barisan Nasional.

The newly-appointed Youth and Sports Minister has plans to engage with young Malaysians, including urban and professional youths, and convey their concerns via the cabinet to the top leadership.

Khairy, who is also Umno Youth chief, was responding to the diminishing support for BN among the younger generation, particularly urban youths.

“Some of the issues are bigger in nature and do not fall under the directive of my ministry, but I promise to be the voice for young people and at very least convey to the government via cabinet their concerns,” said Khairy.

Khairy said his ministry would undergo an “operational review” to identify programmes that are beneficial to youths.

“That would give us a better picture of what programmes can be canned, continued and improved. I also plan to do more programmes to engage with these (urban youth) groups.

“Our emphasis is youth development and we will focus on grassroot engagement with urban professionals. This is something we really need to work on,” he said, in reference to regaining the public’s confidence in the government.

World-class athletes

Khairy also pledged to develop local sports in a bid to produce “world-class, if not, Asian class athletes”.

He explained there were four key areas his ministry would be focusing on: sports at high performance level, sports at a community level, sports for unity, and sports for healthy lifestyle.

He plans to initiate an “idea bank” at his ministry for regular feedback and input from the public.

“That way, people can log into our website and suggest ideas with action plans. If I like their proposal, the ministry can fund their idea and we will work closely with whoever proposes it,” he said.

“I am looking at a lot of engagement programmes. That’s my year to year horizon,” he added.

Service in Rembau

The second-term Rembau MP remains grateful for his win during in the 13th recent general election and pledged to continue uplifting his constituency.

“I’m thankful they gave me a great win and will make sure that even though I have responsibilities as a minister, I will be a diligent member of parliament and will continue to service my constituency,” he said.

He advised “anybody who goes into politics” to ensure that their grassroots are looked after well, regardless of position of power.

“Hopefully with my new job as minister I will be able to build more futsal courts in Rembau,” he said.

“There is no big problem in Rembau but in line with the ministry, we will continue to find opportunities for young people,” he said.

“We will ensure the KTM (commuter train) service goes all the way to Rembau, and that the demands for better facilities are done up nicely.”