Last week Friday, we told you about this idea by Central Government to include representation from youth population in the country to have a say in the way country will be run. 

It's called the National Youth Council, and idea is that youths will chosen to be members of this body through a democratic process where delegates from Youth Advocacy organizations will be able to vote for which young person they think is a good leader. 

This Council will then be able to lobby and influence policy decisions made by the Cabinet and the House of Representatives. It's interesting idea to give youths a say in the policy decisions which affect them, but it's been tried before and met with failure. Well, the Barrow Administration believes that the time is right for yet another attempt and so aspirants have been going around campaigning to the delegates to be elected.

Today, one of the slates running for this office, a team called the Brave and the Bold, granted us an interview to discuss what this Council means to them, and why the youths should embrace it:

Dominique Noralez - Youth Council Aspirant

"The whole idea behind the youth council is to encourage youth participation across the board. So they want our voices to be heard."

Micah Goodin - Youth Council Aspirant

"The purpose of this youth council is somewhat to serve as a youth government in the sense that we will have to represent the interest of young people country wide and that representation can come in the form of policy, influencing policies, influence in legislation, lobbying for certain issues. Like example in our group, we want to lobby for several things, those including greater access and cheaper internet access. We also want to lobby for legislation changes in terms of protection of our young persons on Facebook against cyber-bullying, against leaked nudes. We also want to look at playing the greater role in the distribution of government scholarships because we believe that often times in the distribution of scholarships it is often the wealthiest students or those that have a certain last name is given priority over the average joe that has a perfect GPA."

Daniel Ortiz

"I'm an elder member of the society, I see these young individuals who don't contribute as much as I do. What makes you more capable of advising my government how to run my country than me. What special reason you should be given that position?"

Sharissa Perez - Youth Council Aspirant

"I believe that in order for you to be able to criticize the government to call them out that they are wrong, you need to be able to step up and do the same or even better. So rather than just criticizing them, I've decided to put myself up for the elections to see how I can contribute to give new ideas, to bring fresh energy, to bring more enthusiasm into the political realm to show that young people are not the future, we are today."

Daniel Ortiz

"I get the sense that this youth council has been tried before and failed."

Dominique Noralez - Youth Council Aspirant

"Before us there were two youth parliaments I believe and now there is the establishment of the National Youth Council of Belize under the regional Youth Council. There's a utopia thrown out at you saying this what is going to happen, this is how it is going to happen. As you brightly mentioned failures occurred. So in order for this not to happen, there always has to be a partnership between all stakeholders who deal with youth. Whether you're a scout, you're part of a political arm; you're part of a arm that deals with health like I am. So you always have to communicate and talk to people, make sure everybody is informed and informed well about what is going to happen. Because you can't make a decision without the people that it affects."

Micah Goodin - Youth Council Aspirant

"We're tired of being ignored; we're tired of being an invisible majority. Almost 75% of our population is under age 35 Daniel but there is no young person in the House of Senate, there is no young person in the Executive, there is no young person in the Cabinet and so we have to use this youth council as a means to lobby for the kind of change that we hope to see."

So, as you heard, there's a bit of campaigning involved, and like all politicians, we took the opportunity to challenge each of the members of the Brave and Bold team about why they think they're fit for what is essentially a political office:

Sharissa Perez - Youth Council Aspirant

"I'm trying to get the position because I believe that the Belizean population which as 2014, 56% were 24 years or under and I believe that a lot of us don't have a good understanding of money, we don't have a good understanding of what we can do with the money or investing it and my background was entrepreneurship and that's a part of what I want to contribute to our council."

Dominique Noralez - Youth Council Aspirant

"When it comes to politics, I'm new to all of this but my record shows for itself. I've been a member of BFLA Youth Advocacy movement for almost 4 years now and I've been a Youth Ambassador for the US state department in 2012; I received the Youth Minister's award in 2014 and when I was at SJCJC, I was a member of their Servant Leadership club. So I come with so much to offer, so much to give of myself."

Daniel Ortiz

"Who are the people who vote for you all and how are these people chosen?"

Micah Goodin - Youth Council Aspirant

"In order to be a part of the election process, you have to be a registered youth group; you have to register with the department of youth services. Each group then nominates 2 delegates to participate in the process and so on the 29th of February, you will go to the polls and you will be able to vote electronically."

Daniel Ortiz

"That tends to exclude majority of the young people who you want to represent."

Micah Goodin - Youth Council Aspirant

"Yes we see the entire process has been somewhat elitist because it excludes the grass root youths who are being affected the most by societal issues; so one of our first priorities when we get elected is to restructure the process so as to have a greater inclusion of all youths. Those in school and those out of school because they all need to be represented."

Now, as viewers will know, Micah Goodin is no stranger to politics. In fact, he was at one point the PUP Standard Bearer for Collet until he was replaced by Yasmin Shoman who lost to UDP Incumbent Patrick Faber. So, we asked him if he's taken a pause from party politics to play try for a lesser role of advisor to the Government in this Council. Here's how he answered that one:

Daniel Ortiz

"Are you specifically settling in this particular instance? We know that you wanted to be the standard bearer and the area representative for Collet. That never worked out with the PUP, are you settling for a lesser role in this specific instance?"

Micah Goodin - Youth Council Aspirant

"Actually Daniel I disagree with your statement. I believe that this is a great role in which we can represent young people country wide. I think this is essential to the development of our country. And it is not about settling, it is about taking my time, crawling before I can walk because eventually one day as long as I am living and god is willing, I will become the Prime Minister of this country. (Laugh)"

We understand that there is another slate, one connected to the Department of Youth Services, and we'll try to catch up with them some time soon.