The Deputy of Minister Youth and Sports, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai tells newspaper Malaysian Today what the program is about and its hopes for Malaysian youth.

What is Rakan Muda about?

We encourage the youth to join activities and youth societies because not many do. Out of the 11.1 million youth out there, only 2.1 million are in societies, which means 80% are not. These groups of young people are very diverse. Usually societies are created by youth with their own chairman but the Youth and Sports Ministry has formed a Secretariat so that they can become members of Rakan Muda. Anyone can join and they will get an identity card. Young people like to associated with something so now they can be associated with Rakan Muda. This is a brand name, it’s fun and they can learn a lot if things through Rakan Muda.

Why is Rakan Muda being re-branded?

Rakan Muda has been around for more than 13 to 13 years now and it’s time we re-brand. It is still Rakan Muda but this is phase two because we need to be more specific to cater to the needs of the present generation as we are targeting different people now that are below 25 years of age. For ‘remaja’ adolescents in secondary school, student 15 years and below- even at 12 years old, we have launched a programme called Rakan Muda Jiran Muda which involves community activities, within the neighborhood. We’re following in the footsteps of Rukuntetanga and are working together with the Kementerian Jabatan Perpaduan on this.