Civic versus political participation: a study among marginalized community in Malaysia

Embedded in democratic constitutions are the rights and freedoms that accompany citizenship, and these rights and freedoms include participation. The central concept of participation is that citizens transform themselves from bystanders to actively involve themselves with issues, aiming to realize what they perceive as the public good. Development of any society, in large part, has to do with its young generation. It is crucial that the young generation participate in socio-political activities. This paper presents the civic and political participation of the marginalized generation in Malaysia between the ages of 15 and 25. The paper is based on a nation-wide survey of 3558 youths from marginalized communities in Malaysia. From the findings, these marginalized youths are basically more active in civic participation as compared to political participation. The top three forms of participation are all civic participation and the least participations are all in the realm of political participation. Reasons for less participation in politics need to be addressed. Resources are thus needed for the economic, cultural and social development of the young generation, to support future trends in participation. This will provide a level playing field for both the marginalized and non-marginalized community and will go a long way to improve participation for the betterment of policy formulation