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134 Haris Zuan

by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), began to conduct organised and
structured political education. With KAS’s nancial backing, IKD and
MEGC published and translated books and held forums and political training
workshops. In 2010, IKD (into which MEGC had by then merged) organised
3
a more structured political training and education programme named Sekolah
Politik (Politics School).
Sekolah Politik o ered youths a series of political training sessions, with
emphasis on universal values. e programme introduces participants to
political thinkers such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Locke, as well
as basic concepts such as the separation of powers, federalism, and checks
and balances. Participants are then directed to re ect on these concepts in
the context of Malaysian politics. Most of the programme’s participants are
university graduates from the Klang Valley. Sekolah Politik focuses not just on
building understanding of political thinkers and concepts, but also on training
participants to become politicians by learning how to debate, build arguments,
and develop their rhetoric. Indeed, PKR made e orts to use Sekolah Politik’s
modules and model as the basis for its own political training programme,
Program Kursus Pendidikan Politik Negarawan (Statesman Political Education
Course), but it zzled out after some time.
In 2011, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) launched its own initiative,
called Sekolah Demokrasi. Its objective was to deepen participants’
understanding of democracy while introducing the DAP and its social-
democratic ideology. Just like Sekolah Politik, Sekolah Demokrasi had several
stages (called Forms 1, 2, and 3). Form 1 was the introductory stage. Forms 2
and 3 were speci cally for those interested in learning more about the party’s
ideology and history, with potential to register as members. After the 13th
general election in 2013, Sekolah Demokrasi began to be organised more
e ciently and consistently. Form 1 classes were held twice a month. Edry
Faizal, who was subsequently elected state legislator for Dusun Tua in the 14th
general election, served as coordinator. While the DAP is generally assumed
to be dominated by Malaysians of Chinese ethnicity, its membership is open
to all Malaysians and Sekolah Demokrasi’s participants were overwhelmingly
Malay. One explanation is that the sessions were in the Malay language,
leading to allegations that the programme aimed speci cally to recruit Malays
to the DAP.
e ‘sekolah’ (school) approach was so popular that it got the attention
of the ruling Barisan Nasional, who formed their own political-education
programme, called the School of Politics, under the new Barisan Nasional Youth
Volunteers (BNYV). Previously, BN seemed content to employ government

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