KUCHING: Certain challenges must be faced and tackled by political parties if amendments to the law were passed by parliament to lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
A political secretary to the chief minister, Soo Li Ching, said if that becomes a reality there would be more eligible voters for the next state election which is scheduled for 2021.
This, she said, would present new challenges including the need to educate young voters on the country’s political system so that they could play their roles positively.
“Still, we must bear in mind that allowing teenagers to vote come with risks that we need to moderate,” she said to the New Sarawak Tribune yesterday.
“Taking into account their lack of experience and maturity, we should ask if they are capable of analysing and applying political information.”
However, she didn’t think that any political party should treat voting at the age of 18 as a form of disadvantage for our democracy. After all, young people are the future generation who will take over this country in future.
She pointed out that as the age of majority is 18, the law defines them as adults who are responsible for their own decisions in selecting their leaders and government in an election.
In real life, though, young voters can easily be influenced by some forceful unscrupulous politicians who play “hate politics” to satisfy their desires.
Hence, the young need to be educated to be reasonable and rational when choosing their leaders instead of relying of their emotions which are not objective.
“Whether it is a game changer or not in the political arena, it will be the responsibilities and burden of political parties and apolitical organisations to give relevant information to young voters,” Soo said.
