Youths march for muhibbah while Najib talks of 6E’s

While Najib talks of 'empowerment' plan, young people take unity Muhibbah Walk.

KUALA LUMPUR: Hundreds of young Malaysians are gathering for a march to celebrate diversity, while the government spoke of taking a “6E” approach to empower the country’s youth.

The 6Es are: engagement, empowerment, education, entrepreneurship, social enterprise and experience, said prime minister Najib Razak in a speech at the Malaysian Youth Council’s annual meeting this morning.

However, in the evening, up to 2,000 young people empowering themselves will gather at Dataran Petaling Jaya for a Muhibbah Walk, with the theme Faces Without Races. This event, unlike the one Najib attended, is not organised by the government but by a group called The Movement. Participants will walk for about 2km around Dataran PJ and then gather for a carnival with music and arts. Among those expected are activists Marina Mahathir and Ambiga Sreenivasan.

Donations will also be collected and volunteers sought to help flood victims in Kelantan with clean-up and reconstruction.

The group was started by a small group of young Malaysians who wanted to make a difference for unity, the Malaysian Insider reported.

Empowerment of a different kind was emphasised by the prime minister in the morning.

He said the 6Es plan would give youth a bigger platform to voice their views, he said, pointing to the Youth Parliament organised by the government and the National Youth Consultation Council. “Perhaps in future other platforms can be considered,” Bernama quoted him as saying.

Empowerment included giving the youth opportunities in various careers, including representatives in parliament, government administration and state legislative assemblies.

He welcomed suggestions to amend the definition of youth to mean 15 to 30 years as outlined in the Draft National Youth Policy. A new curriculum would be created for the National Service Training programme to provide youths with skills in discipline and patriotism so that NS trainees would have “higher market value”.