MANY of us, once we reach 21 years of age, take the right to vote for granted.
The right to vote not long ago was hard-fought for in many countries.
This right to vote is also called Universal Suffrage meaning “there is no distinction between voters over a certain age in any part of its territories due to gender, literacy, wealth, social status, religion, race or ethnicity.”
This is of course is linked to ‘democracy’, in Greek meaning “rule by people” whereby citizens exercise power by voting.
We are indeed fortunate that since the formation of Malaysia, we have a democracy with universal suffrage.
When most countries started and established themselves as democracies, they generally set the voting age at 21.
In our Federal Constitution, Article 119 (1) (a) sets the voting age at 21.
However, about 40 years ago many countries started changing and now the most common voting age in many countries is now 18.
In a few countries there are still ongoing debates over proposals to reduce the voting age to 18.
There are of course some detractors who still argue that people at this age would not be able to understand politics and make reasonable judgments about suitable candidates and policies.
To these detractors, I would say look at the millions of adult Americans who voted and made Trump win.
Were these voters being responsible and did they understand what they were doing? Did they exercise political maturity?
Many 18-year-olds nowadays have far great exposure to the political realities in our environment than in the past.
In Malaysia, we might be undergoing a transformation of sorts if the voting age is reduced to 18.
It was recently announced that Cabinet has agreed to reduce the legal voting age from 21 to 18.
It was also reported that a bill to amend to the Federal Constitution accordingly will be tabled in this year’s June session of Parliament.
If this amendment is approved by Parliament it will most likely have a significant impact and outcome in the GE15 in four years’ time.
This would mean that kids who are now 14 years of age will be eligible in 2023 to vote.
The battle for the hearts and minds would then start in earnest to get the support of people in this age group and above.
I wonder if people in Sarawak realise that actually the extension of universal suffrage to 18-year-olds in Malaysia would most likely be tried out in Sarawak first.
If the amendment is passed this year, it means most likely if the Sarawak elections are held either in 2020 or in 2021, our youths will be the first to vote as 18-year-olds.
Assuming the elections are in 2020/2021, our 17/16-year-old youths today will be eligible to vote.
The question arises, have we prepared our youth with well-balanced information for them to make choices that will ensure Sarawak’s autonomy and rights.
In times past most youths acquired their political voting habits and leanings from their parents.
However, with the changing times, this does not seem to be the case.
In all the recent elections the youth votes seem to have been heavily influenced by social media reports and infographics.
It seems that in some cases there is even a role reversal whereby the youths have managed to convince their parents to vote based on their choice.
I am not saying this is wrong, merely that the realities of voting patterns and trends have changed and are more fluid nowadays.
It would be advisable for the Sarawak-based parties to go into high gear now and educate our youths and new 18-year-old voters about their responsibility to Sarawak.
Utilising the social media to disseminate information to our new young voters has become a matter of urgency.
Has an impact assessment of their entry into the political landscape been done?
What will be their impact on Sarawak overall?
Whatever the outcome, we have to embrace the change that the lowering of voting age brings with it.
I am of course assuming that the proposed amendment will garner the required two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Giving young people the right to express themselves via the ballot box is a good opportunity for them to contribute and merge into mainstream society.
We can see that nowadays many youths are participating in events and civic activities and their growing participation in society must be viewed positively.
I would say it would be good if we encourage more youths to be involved in their local communities and learn about responsibilities.
This will awaken them towards their responsibilities to Sarawak and its aspirations.
We need to inculcate the Sarawak First values in our younger generations to ensure they are able to make decisions beneficial to Sarawak at the next Sarawak elections.
