YOUTH AWARENESS TOWARDS THE MALAYSIAN PUBLIC POLICIES UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF PAKATAN HARAPAN

Abstract

Public awareness is a drive for social change through the knowledge of social and political problems and the development of patterns for expression. Nevertheless, the degree of awareness varies from individual to another, particularly concerning public services, where not all people are aware of public policies formulated by the government. Currently, awareness of policies are still very minimal; thus, they only know the basics of right and wrong without understanding the full implications of it. There is a need to have a stronger emphasis on creating awareness on this vital issue. Thus, this study attempts to examine youth awareness on the public policies under the reign of Pakatan Harapan government. This descriptive study was conducted among youth in UiTM Cawangan Pahang Kampus Raub whereby 1121 respondents had participated in answering the questionnaires. The findings revealed that the majority of the respondents are aware of several public policies. However, among 11 public policies listed in the survey, four of them are still unknown to the youth. Therefore in this study, Rogers’ Diffusion Theory and the Public Participation theory were employed to underpin the core issues, and several recommendations are offered at the end of the paper.