PAD 120 - INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE

SEMESTER 2 2018/2019

QUESTION :

POLITICAL IS IMPORTANT TO STUDENTS

PREPARED BY :

ROSEMARY ER (2018634932)

PREPARED TO :

MOHAMMED RAHEZZAL SHAH ABDUL KARIM

 POLITICAL IS IMPORTANT TO STUDENTS

Politics is an essential part of the society around the globe. In some advanced countries such
as United States of America, politics play huge role in maintaining the peace of the country.
On the other hand, politics also important for the third world country such as Cambodia, where
the major change in their politics bring changes for the country. In simple words, politics is
important for any country to be a better place for the people. Ironically the idea of “politics” is
not something that will be easy to define. The meaning of politics derived from Greek word is
community or society. According to Adrian Leftwich in his writing of Thinking Politically: On
the politics of Politics, he acknowledge that politics is hard to define. He define the politics
using two approaches, in which the first approach is that politics is an activity that can be found
where there is society and certain institutions. The second approach is that politics as a general
process that existed and is very important to have where people existed (Leftwich, 2015).
Politics in modern life has become all-encompassing that affect every aspect of human activity.
It has become a major force in forming state affairs through policies driven by political views
of the reigning government.

Each country in the world has their own political system to govern their state. For
instance, Malaysia practices Parliamentary Democracy with Constitutional Monarchy and His
Majesty, The King as the Paramount Ruler. According to Karl Popper, democracy is a system
that gave a chance to the people to control or choose their leaders without making any extreme
revolution. Democracy had given Malaysia a new era when the Alliance of Hope (Pakatan
Harapan) won the 14th General Election (GE 14) on May 9, 2018, shifting Malaysia’s political
power, ending the decades of struggle against the Barisan Nasional’s (BN) dominant.
Awareness of corruption done by BN has bring the citizen together and voted out BN from
ruling the country. This major changes give a new hope for the people Malaysia who wish to
change the title of Malaysia’s development from developing country to developed country. A
statistic reported by the Berita Harian shows that the youth raging from age 21 to 39 were the
major voters during the GE14. When we are looked at the age range we know that 21 to 39 are
mostly undergraduates and post graduates students. This shows that how big students’ roles are
in selecting political rulers. Therefore it is very important for students to at least be aware of
the current political issue in order for them make a better judgement for the country.

Furthermore, politics will also decide the economic status of a country. This is because
the economic status affects the future of the students in terms of their educations and also their
career. When we talk about students we eventually will talk about educations. Nowadays,
Malaysian can access educations and it is only up to them whether they want to go higher or
stay where there are. Increasing progress in economic leads to more educations funds or
scholarship that give opportunities for students to learn from local top university, and also top
universities around the world. Government also will have the funds to create jobs opportunity
for the students to develop their career and bring benefit to the country. Once students finish
their studies and went to the working world, they can share their knowledge and use it to make
a better Malaysia for the future generations. In other words, with a good economic, the
government can invest more in the students’ educations for the good of the country and create
variety of job scope to develop Malaysia. In contrast, if the country’s economic progress
deteriorated, government will then minimize the investment in educations in which some
educations funds and scholarship might need to be closed down. Also the government may also
need to minimize the variety of job scope which will lead to high competitions in career wise.
Unemployment can be a big problem added to huge debt of tuition fee. Again, this is one of
the reasons why knowledge about politics is important for students as a way for survival in the
future.

Talking about the future, it is crucial for students to understand and have knowledge of
politics as they are the future leaders of the country. They may currently studying medicine for
the undergraduate, but who knows later in the future they might be the next Tun Dr. Mahathir
bin Muhamad. Although the students think that their current area of studies have nothing to do
with politics, but in fact they are the future of Malaysia. In order to make changes in the future,
students should learn from the current government and take note to all the policies that succeed
or failed. It is very important to know the reasons for a policy to succeed and the reasons for
one to fail. This will provide huge benefits for the future reigning government. Some may not
have any interest in being a politician, but what they did in the future will definitely affect the
politics. For example, student who have zero interest in Malaysia’s politic and only interested
to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. But that student will help Malaysia to have better relationship
with other countries. Or maybe students who wanted to be the next Vivy Yusof, a successful
entrepreneur and also social media influencer. That students can use their influence to talk to
younger generation to together create a better Malaysia. As long as they have basic knowledge
on politics, they can contribute in moving Malaysia using their fields of studies.

Besides that, politics also help students to know the updated opportunity and understand
their rights. Not knowing much about the updated opportunity can lead to being ignored or
missed the opportunity to have a better life. For examples students from rural area might gave
up on studying because their family cannot afford the tuition fee, not knowing the government
have created so many ways to help the Malaysian access to educations. In additions, the
government also have some program targeting unemployed to improve their skills in order to
help them find a job related to the program. Some may not want to join this program thinking
that they are old enough for it, not knowing there is no age limit on these program. Missing
this opportunity means they have missed golden ticket to expand their skills and probably get
employed.

Looking at different setting, talking about the politics in general will help students to
develop their critical thinking and improving their debate skills. In order to do so, students
should know that they have the rights to talk and discuss about the politics. According to the
New Straits Times, on 1 November 2018, an article written by Manirajan Ramasamy
mentioned Tun Dr. Mahathir encouraging students to talk about politics as a proposed
amendments of Universities and University College Act 1971 (AUKU) allowed political
parties to be set up in universities (Ramasamy, 2018). It is a good opportunity for students to
take part of the branches political parties as it will help them to be on top of the latest policies
and political issues. Not only critical thinking and debate skills, but involving directly to these
branches can help students to develop better leadership skill that are useful when they enter the
corporate world or working in general.

In conclusion, politics is important for students to learn, talk and discuss. This is
because having knowledge in politics will helps students in terms of helping themselves and
helping the country. Knowing the politics help students to have better judgement in order to
choose better ruler for the country. They will learn the strength and weakness each and every
candidates for every general elections so that they can choose the best leader for Malaysia.
Besides that, knowing the current situations of the politics will also help them designing their
future. As mentioned before, the politics and economic tied together affecting the educational
system. Just like the snowball effect, one down and everything will go down the hill. Therefore,
students have to understand the current political views so help themselves in the future. Along
with that, this opportunity can also be used to help others as well. Relating their current fields
of studies with the future development of Malaysia can help them create a better place for their
children and their children’s children. Again, creating a better Malaysia not only limited to
being a politician but relating their scope with the politics can also contribute. Changes does
not only mean physical changes, but also the mental changes that they can have focusing of the
future making. Discussing about politics can also help students staying updated with the current
opportunities created by the government. Most of the time it helps to improve skills and help
students to get employed. Every year the number of unemployment increased and competitions
of finding jobs also increased. Therefore, knowing the current issues of politics and current
opportunities can be advantage for most students. Last on the list, is that discussing about
politics itself can help to improve students’ critical thinking skills, which one of the crucial
skills needed to create better nation. As the current Prime Minister encourages students to
discuss about politics, it will be best if students take full advantage to be part of the system.
References
Leftwich, A. (2015). What is politics: The Activity and its Study. John Wiley & Sons.

Ramasamy, M. (2018, November 1). Dr. Mahathir: University Students are free to talk about

Politics. News Straits Times.