PENANG, October 11 – The Penang State Government through Penang Youth Development Corporation (PYDC) has started their second Mural Arts project under the ‘Blank Canvas: Mural Art’ series at Taman Dahlia last weekend with the theme of ‘Umur 18 Jadi Calon’. A total of 10 volunteers took part in the project and painted 21 walls at Taman Dahlia under the guidance of the artist, Ms. Hunny Ooi. All volunteers had been following strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) during the painting process.
The Project ‘Blank Canvas: Mural Art’ series aims to provide more platforms for young people to connect with the local community and help to showcase their talents in arts. It is also in line with the Penang 2030 vision in empowering youth to make a positive impact in Penang’s society through arts and innovation. The ‘Umur 18 Jadi Calon’ artwork was painted on 2 walls at Taman Dahlia whereby the other 19 walls were also awashed with paintings related to youth and sports which include cycling, jogging, basketball, volleyball, and Tai Chi.
The theme of ‘Umur 18 Jadi Calon’ is to raise awareness and educate the public regarding parliamentary democracy and encourage more youth to register as voters. Penang has passed a law allowing those aged 18 and above to be candidates for state seats in the next polls. In an amendment to the state’s constitution, the present age cap of 21 to be a member of the legislative assembly was reduced to 18 after bipartisan support from the 40-seat assembly.
Moreover, the Election Commission (SPR) has also started the pre-registration of automatic voters (SPPA) program to let the 18 and above voters verify their information before the automatic voter registration is implemented. Malaysia is set to implement automatic voter registration and lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 soon. Upon implementation of SPPA program, YB Soon Lip Chee urged young voters to verify their information. “Hereby, I would like to take this opportunity to urge our young people aged 18 and above to verify their information before 31 October 2021.”
“As an NGO at the national level, of course we have various aspects to emphasize, among them is the spirit of volunteerism among the youth. So, when we received a call from PYDC to invite us as a collaboration partner in this project, without thinking long we immediately accepted it and started looking for volunteers, in a short time, we managed to get some volunteers to make this project a success.”, said Saif Yunuz, the Honorary Treasurer of Youth Care Malaysia (YCM). Saif Yunuz, the Honorary Treasurer of Youth Care Malaysia (YCM) also thinks that such a program can stimulate the spirit of young people in the field of volunteerism and hopes to work more with PYDC in the future.
