By Yow Lee Fung

The Dewan Rakyat passed the Federal Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019 in the third reading on July 16 this year. Beginning the 15th general elections, Malaysian citizens aged 18 and above will be able to vote. The amendment bill was adopted by all the lawmakers across the political divide in an unprecedented occasion.

In the next general elections, the country’s political landscape is poised to experience a dramatic shift because the number of voters will increase significantly by 50% or 7.8 million to 22.7 million. These first-time voters will very likely determine the future destiny of this country.

It is no longer appropriate now to discuss whether 18-year-olds are matured enough, as a decision has already been made. The focus now should be on helping young Malaysians to muster enough knowledge to understand the country’s democratic mechanism, as well as the operation of elections, the Parliament and politics. Even though they may not have established their ability in independent thinking and objective analyses, at least they will not be completely at a loss in front of the ballot boxes, destroying the country’s destiny as well as their own over the next five years.

Youngsters below the age of 18 should be still studying at schools, and secondary schools are therefore the best places to groom modern citizens of this country. In conjunction with the new law, civic education at our secondary schools should be of utmost importance. From what we know, the education ministry has begun civic education classes in kindergartens and schools nationwide from June this year.

According to the definition of civic education from Wikipedia, civic education is the study of the theoretical, political and practical aspects of citizenship, as well as its rights and duties. It includes the study of civil law and civil code, and the study of government with attention to the role of citizens. In view of this, I personally feel that civic education should include also moral education as well as political education.

Besides the education ministry, civic organisations should also share this responsibility, in particular organisations with affiliated youth wings. For instance, the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall Youth Wing and the Civic Rights Committee have been organising activities related to civil rights and have managed to produce talented young people who care about the society and contribute positively towards our society over the years.

How are we going to educate the young minds exposed to enormous volumes of misinformation and ill-intentioned comments? As a matter of fact, more than 200 countries in this world, including many developed countries, have already lowered their voting age to 18, and the civic quality of their citizens is generally quite high.

And since we are so worried about whether our young voters will know how to vote wisely, what about the many irregularities in the adults’ world? With rampant corruption and abuse of power, vote-buying and populist practices in an attempt to influence voting trends, extremist religious and racist remarks to confuse the public, some of our adult voters may also lose their sensibility to vote in a matured and responsible manner. Rights and obligations should be equally important civic qualities, but unfortunately our deviated national policies have given rise to a group of privileged individuals who only yearn for their rights and powers and are unwilling to perform their duties and obligations. It is sad that many grown-ups and leaders of this country lack such a concept and still shamelessly champion for their rights that are not duty-bound.

The prime minister said reducing the voting age is in line with global democratic trends to provide our youngsters a democratic platform to freely express their political views. Then what about the notorious University and University College Act 1971 (AUKU)? For the past four decades, it has smothered the matured development of our tertiary students, denying them of the opportunity to become competent and responsible future leaders of this country.

It is therefore imperative that the government will expedite the abolition of this law in order to take the nation to a history-making new era.

This is the third in a series of five articles published in conjunction with the Chinese Education Day 2019.

More:

Youth suffrage and civic education

Towards the age of movement students

From preservation to rejuvenation

Do we need civic education?

(
Yow Lee Fung
is LLG Foundation Vice Chair.)