PERANAN BELIA DAN PRU-14 DI SABAH: KAJIAN KES DI P.188 SILAM

Belia merupakan kumpulan penting kepada kelangsungan politik Malaysia. Peningkatan jumlah kumpulan belia yang mewakili hampir separuh populasi pengundi berdaftar di Malaysia menjadikan kumpulan ini penting kepada negara kerana mereka mampu menentukan keputusan pilihan raya. Hakikatnya, kumpulan anak muda ini sangat sensitif kepada perubahan yang berlaku di persekitaran mereka dan sangat kritikal kepada dasar-dasar kerajaan yang tidak memberikan keuntungan kepada mereka. Oleh itu, berdasarkan kajian tentang peranan belia dalam Pilihan raya Umum ke-14 (PRU) di Parlimen Silam (P.188) mendapati bahawa protes belia di Parlimen Silam dan tiga kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) (N.51 Kunak, N.50 Lahad Datu dan N.49 Tungku) di bawah Parlimen ini adalah disebabkan oleh kegagalan kerajaan terdahulu, iaitu Barisan Nasional (BN) dalam melaksanakan dasar dan program yang bermanfaat dan memberi keuntungan kepada belia. Protes ini diterjemahkan dalam bentuk undi ke atas Parti Warisan Sabah (PWS). Menyedari akan kepentingan belia kepada kelangsungan parti pemerintah, maka artikel ini menghujahkan bahawa parti pemerintah di peringkat nasional dan negeri pada hari ini perlu memberikan perhatian yang lebih serius ke atas isu keterpinggiran belia. Oleh itu, beberapa usaha mendekati belia perlu dilakukan secara konsisten dan ia bukan hanya menjadi rutin apabila tibanya musim pilihan raya. AbstractThe youths are an essential group of voters in Malaysian politics. With the rising number of youths, representing almost half of registered voters in Malaysia, their roles are pertinent as they were able to determine the result of the election. This is because these groups of young peoples are susceptible to the changes that are taking place in their surroundings and they are also very critical of the government's policies that may not serve their interests. Based on the study carried out on the role of youth during the 14th General Election (GE-14) in the Parliament (P.188) Silam and three other state seats (N. 51 Kunak, N. 50 Lahad Datu and N. 49 Tungku), it was found that the protest among youths in these Parliament constituents was due to the failure of the previous government, Barisan Nasional (BN) in implementing policies and programs that benefitted the youths. They translated their protests in the form of casting their votes to choose the opposition party, i.e. Parti Warisan Sabah (PWS) to come into power. Recognizing the importance of the youths in determining the survival of the ruling party, this article concludes that the current government at the state and national level needs to give serious attention to the issue of the marginalisation among the youths. Therefore, more efforts should be undertaken to reach out and to engage the youths on a regular basis as opposed to the previous practices of only approaching them before and during election season.