Old enough to die for country but too young to vote?
PETALING JAYA: Should 18-year-olds, who can legally drive and get married, be allowed to vote?
The law allowing 18-year-old Malaysians to vote and even stand as election candidates was passed and gazetted in 2019 but has yet to be implemented.
Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Ahmad Kamal, the deputy minister of youth and sports, got an argument going when he said that youths were not mature enough to vote and needed to be educated before being allowed to do so.
The right to vote should come with the moral duty to do so judiciously, he said.
Two analysts FMT spoke to disagreed but another supported the deputy minister’s opinion.
Kenneth Cheng of the Agora Society, a loose network of intellectuals, noted that 18-year-olds were considered old enough to join the army.
“If they can die for their country, why question their knowledge?” he said.
Cheng questioned the sensitivity of those saying youths need more education before voting, pointing out that reading materials on current issues as well as on the responsibilities of voters were freely available on the internet.
Moreover, he said, it would be naïve to imagine that all older people were well equipped intellectually to decide whom to vote for.
However, Cheng also said most voters, whether literate or illiterate, were aware of the issues affecting their daily lives and the young in a maturing society should be even better at thinking for themselves.
He said schools were teaching about voting rights as part of the history syllabus and students could learn more through the internet.
It smacked of a discriminatory attitude to assume that students were not educated enough on voting rights and responsibilities, he added.
Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya also referred to lessons on voting rights in the history syllabus and said that students were learning about ethics through moral and religious studies.
Most countries, he said, allowed the young to vote and Malaysia should not backpedal into questioning the political literacy of the young.
He said politicians who were raising doubts about the voting knowledge of 18-year-olds could be doing so out of their fear of anti-establishment youths.
“But youths do not care about a political party’s ideology. For them it is about education, scholarships, training and jobs.”
Awang Azman also said youths wanted political parties to be free of corruption and might look for a third force if they were unhappy with ruling parties as well as with the established opposition.
“These requirements may frighten some political parties,” he said.
Former academic Azmi Hassan agrees with Wan Ahmad Fayhsal, saying university students were lacking in the critical thinking needed to make decisions.
“When we ask them critical or general knowledge questions, they find it hard to answer because of a lack of knowledge.
“I am not sure if those aged 18 to 21 can make decisions based on knowledge or on just their whims and fancies,” he said.
He urged the education ministry to introduce critical thinking and general knowledge courses from Primary One to tertiary-level.
The Undi 18 bill, officially known as Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019, was passed by the Dewan Negara in July 2019 and gazetted two months later.
On Tuesday, Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan urged the government to “do the right thing” and allow the voting age to be lowered to 18.
He said the government should be “gentlemanly enough” and not change its stance on the issue “just because young voters are not in favour of the ruling party”. - FMT
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