fied programs?
All the stakeholders expressed how engaged they
are in the government programs except one. He men-
tioned that he preferred to be independent and not
hoping for endowment from the government. He
cited that the programs had no impact on him. The
stakeholders who are professionals were robust in
terms expressing their views via various communica-
tion channels both new media and face to face. The
following verbatim illustrates the stakeholders’ levels
of engagement.
S2: I paid attention to all government pro-
grams. . . I will discuss in my WhatsApp group. . . any
grievances. . . anything we like. . .
S1: I believe that there must be a balance between
income and cost of living. I get involved to make sure
that I have a say in what happens in the future. . . we
must pay attention to the government’s programs and
express our views. . . so the younger generation will
have a chance of a stable and prosperous life.
S3: We want active participation, and as the cit-
izens we can’t be sitting quietly and complain. . . I
think everybody is educated, if we have an issue, we
voice it out. . . we go to the problem.. go to the source
of the problem, then that will be direct..we can email,
meet face to face, tweet, or any other means of com-
munication.
S4: I do get involved. . . can talk to NGOs. . . NGOs
have done a good job in letting the government know
of people’s grievances.
S2: I think letting our wakil rakyat know is a good
way to voice our concerns. I take any opportunity to
get my views heard. . . hopefully the government can
take appropriate action.
S5: I am managing on my own. Don’t really rely
on anything from the government. . . it’s easier to be
independent. I don’t get involved.. whatever pro-
grams the government do. . . don’t have impact on me..
What expectations do the stakeholders have on the
future government programs?
All of the stakeholders were in total agreement
with regards to what they expected from the govern-
ment. First and foremost, they wanted transparency
in all government programs. They also expected the
government to be inclusive, fair in their dealings, cor-
ruption free and fulfil their promises.
S1: whatever it is that the government wants to
implement, I just want them to be fair, not bias to-
wards a certain race. . . or only for their political sup-
porters. . . do it for the rakyat..be transparent.
S4: there must a platform for the rakyat to meet
and voice their concerns to government officials.
Don’t think that the poor and people from rural areas
don’t matter. . . they do matter. . . the facilities must be
provided and available to all.
S5: to me, very simple. Keep your promises.
Implement programs that could help the rakyat. Be
transparent.
S3: My hopes for the future. . . 4 things... more
transparency, no more corruption, lower cost of liv-
ing and better living conditions like Norway and Swe-
den. Improve government programs so everyone can
progress and prosper. . . .so the children will have a
better life.
S2: You walk the talk..we want the government to
be like NIKE, ok, just do it. You promised, now ac-
tion. We are here. Our support as rakyat is unwaver-
ing..make life better, safer and richer for all of us..my
only hope. . . is for the government to be honest, fair,
and make all the good things happen!
The findings of the study revealed that the pro-
fessionals were totally engaged in keeping track with
government programs and were aware of many of the
programs that benefitted them. They were very real-
istic in the ways they perceived the government pro-
grams. They could see the positive sides of the pro-
grams as well as those that need to be further im-
proved. They were practical in their outlook and this
standpoint led them to be more engaged.
They expressed support for the programs and rec-
ognized the limitations. This is in line with Faridah
et.al (Ibrahim et al., 2019) and Nalick et al. (Nalick
et al., 2016). Faridah et.al (Ibrahim et al., 2019) found
that youth in Malaysia expressed support but identi-
fied weaknesses of the government’s programs. Nal-
ick et al. (2016) suggested that there is a point of in-
tersection between the government and the stakehold-
ers on certain programs and activities. This will en-
courage acceptability among the stakeholders which
in turn will sustain collaborative relationships.
The findings from this study are consistent
with earlier studies in this area (Freeman and
McVea, 2001)(Greenwood, 2007)(Ihugba and Osuji,
2011)(Ibrahim et al., 2019) which proved that with
strong stakeholder engagement, both government and
society will benefit. Nevertheless, it is interesting to
note that the possibility of stakeholders being disen-
gaged. This could happen should the programs initi-
ated by the government did not meet their expectation
and be of benefit to them.
The stakeholders have expressed that they can
freely voice out their views and concerns. They were
confident in being actively participating and using dif-
ferent channels of communication be it social media
or face to face interaction. This study has added a
new insight where professionals as stakeholders were
assertive in their expression of views compared to the
youth as stakeholders. The youth, in an earlier study
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