Four essential traits young people in Malaysia need for the future

Sadina Suffian

One too many times, I’ve asked myself a question that refuses to go away: what will define the youth of 2040?

It’s not a rhetorical question. It’s one I ask often.

Especially when I see young volunteers sweeping a flood-hit street in Hulu Langat, when I scroll through social media and find teenagers debating national policies, or when I hear quiet stories of students juggling studies while caring for ill family members.

These snapshots, taken together, sketch out the beginnings of a generation that will inherit more than just our roads, systems and institutions. They will inherit our unfinished promises.

The question is, what will they carry with them into the future?

If I had to choose four defining traits, I would hope it’s this: volunteerism, digital ethics, cultural empathy and resilience.

These are not just ideals, mind you. They are survival skills, nation-building tools, and pillars of character that will shape whether Malaysia thrives or stagnates.

Let’s start with volunteerism – not the token type we put in logbooks, but the kind that moves people into action without needing to be asked.

At Team Selangor, I’ve seen this spark up close. It’s in the way young people step into flooded homes without hesitation. It’s in the way they coordinate gotong-royong (community help), mentor students or run social media campaigns for mental health awareness.

Volunteerism nurtures the quiet muscle of responsibility. It teaches you to show up. It builds the habit of care.

If we want our young people to carry Malaysia forward, we need to embed service as a way of life, not just a weekend activity.

Every hour spent volunteering is an hour learning about systems, about people, about oneself. It is the training ground for future councillors, ministers, policymakers and educators.

Obviously not everyone who volunteers becomes a leader, but every leader worth remembering has served.

Digital ethics matters

Next, we need to talk about digital ethics.

By 2040, today’s secondary school students will be running businesses, holding office and raising children in an online-first world. The way they interact with information, with one another and with power through digital tools will shape not just their lives, but more importantly, ours.

Technology is neutral. But its impact depends on the hands that hold it.

Will our young people be passive consumers of misinformation, or will they grow into critical thinkers who can separate signal from noise? Will they use AI to manipulate, or to solve pressing problems in climate, health and education?

Digital literacy is no longer enough. What we need is a generation that is digitally principled – one that understands privacy, consent, accountability and the moral weight of online actions.

As we embrace the fourth industrial revolution, our ethics must evolve just as quickly as our machines.

Understanding each other

Then there’s cultural empathy – the one value we talk about a lot, but rarely teach with depth.

In a Malaysia that grows more diverse by the day, it is not enough to tolerate differences. We must build a generation that understands others, deeply and with humility.

This goes beyond having friends of different ethnic backgrounds. It means really understanding how others live, what they value and what they struggle with.

It means being able to listen to someone whose beliefs make you uncomfortable, without shutting them down. It means making space for voices that are usually left out.

Our fragmentation began long ago, carved by colonial policies and hardened by decades of separate schooling, housing and narratives.

But if the young people of 2040 are to lead Malaysia forward, they must reject this inheritance. They must become bridge-builders, not fence-sitters.

This is where volunteerism and empathy overlap. When young people work together, whether in gotong-royong, in flood relief, or in makeshift kampung kitchens, they learn to see each other as people first, not categories.

This is the quiet work that unites a nation – not policies, not slogans, but shared effort in service of something larger.

And finally, resilience – perhaps the hardest to measure, but the most important to nurture.

The world that our young people are walking into is not an easy one. They will face climate shocks, job disruptions, political uncertainty and information overload.

We cannot shield them from these storms. But we can prepare them to face them and to keep going.

Resilience is not about blind toughness. It’s about adaptability. It’s the ability to fall and still stand for others. It’s the strength to question things without becoming cynical.

It’s what makes a student from a low-income PPR flat believe she still belongs in a university lecture hall. It’s what makes a young father take a second ride-hailing job and still make time for his older neighbour in his flat.

Resilience is what allows a country to be rebuilt – one household, one person at a time.

So, when I think of the young people of 2040, I think of four things: the heart to serve, the conscience to use technology wisely, the courage to embrace difference and the strength to rise after each fall.

If we can shape systems, institutions and opportunities that feed these traits, whether through our schools, our NGOs, our policies or our homes, then I have no doubt that Malaysia will be in good hands.

Not perfect hands. But good, honest, steady ones.

Sadina Suffian is thetreasurer of electoral watchdog Bersih and chief operating officer of Team Selangor. Team Selangor is an outfit under the Selangor chief minister’s focusing on youth empowerment and volunteerism.