Having just finished his second year at Trent University, Cultural Studies and Political Studies student, Andrew Tan created a video to address voter apathy in Malaysia, with the general elections around the corner.
“The funny thing is, I can’t even vote in Malaysia because I’m too young,” explained Mr. Tan, originally from Selangor, Malaysia. “You have to be 21 to vote in Malaysia, but not enough young people who are coming of age are participating in the democratic process.”
“Also amazingly, there is a good representation of Malaysian ethnicities in the video – including Aboriginal – and all of them are Trent students. I had never met an Aboriginal Malaysian person until I came to Trent.”
The video has so far received 13,000 hits on Youtube and has been critiqued by a popular youth blogger in the Malaysian blogosphere and featured on several Malaysian news websites. Mr. Tan is excited that the video and the web presence has encouraged conversation and dialogue among young people about voting and the democratic process.”
Also credited in the making of the video are fellow Trent International Students at Trent Jonathan Alphonsus, who cowrote the script and other participants Shirin Nuesslein, Ripdaman Singh, Fayeshien Tan and Nurshahidah Zahid.
Posted on Friday, April 27, 2012.