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Umno, PAS will back lowering voting age to 18, think tank claims

Pakatan Harapan announced its plan last September to lower the legal voting age. — Picture by Farhan Najib
Pakatan Harapan announced its plan last September to lower the legal voting age. — Picture by Farhan Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 ― The Centre for Governance and Political Studies (Cent-GPS) said today it believes that Malaysia's Opposition bloc ― largely made of Umno and former rivals PAS ― is game when it comes to decreasing the voting age to 18 instead of the current 21.

The Umno-linked think tank revealed its findings on Twitter but did not provide a corresponding report, where it came to that conclusion based on the strong youth-centric recruitment drive by both parties.

“Umno-PAS are lowering their membership age (Umno to 16 and PAS to 13). Cent-GPS finds that the biggest Opposition bloc will support the amendment to lower the voting age in order to obtain the support of the youths who are disappointed with the government,” it said.

 

The support of the Opposition is required to make this particular change as the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration does not command a two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat.

Cent-GPS, that said it advocates for lowering the voting age, added that the failure to amend the 1963 Malaysian Agreement (MA63) should not be an excuse for PH to not table the amendment.

Despite its assertion, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman had said in April that Putrajaya will table a Bill to amend the Federal Constitution and lower the voting age from 21 to 18 years’ old at the next parliamentary meeting.

PH announced its plan last September to lower the legal voting age.

Cent-GPS also shared a Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar) study saying that 64.1 per cent of the youths are interested to vote at 18, while the rest are neutral or does not care about the political affairs of the country.

 

Touching on the views that 18-year-old youths lack the maturity to cast their, Cent-GPS then shot a question on whether or not an irrational vote exists in the first place.

The think tank also shared a video featuring Tharma Pillay, director and co-founder of activist group Undi18 that advocates for lowering the age to 18. who pointed out that in a democracy, there is no such thing as an irrational or “wrong” vote.

“I think it's just political gatekeeping you are fearful that these youths will make the wrong choice,” he said.

“But in a democracy, you have to think what is the right choice? Is there such a thing as a wrong choice? Every person vote for individual reason. For instance, when it comes to academics and educated people they might look at political theory and vote.

“They debate on the nation building structure and then they vote. But someone from the rural environment will think: Oh, this politician is helping me and my family. They build a bridge in my kampung. And that is also a valid reason to vote in a democracy,” said Tharma.

Cent-GPS also attempted to debunk the myth that youths are less aware of or are more easily duped than their elders.

In its survey involving 3,500 social media users, the think tank found that users above 65 years old are three times more likely to share fake news when compared to a millennial.

Other countries that have since lowered their voting age to 18 include the US, the UK, India, Iran, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, and Australia.

Singapore’s legal voting age is also at 21.

Those aged 18 and above are recognised as legal adults under Malaysian law, and are able to obtain driving licences, sign legally binding contracts and marry without further adult consent.

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