Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and the Taiwan Alliance for the Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare yesterday criticized President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) over his opposition to a proposal to lower the minimum voting age from 20 to 18.
“I would like to call on the president to keep his hands off the legislature and not to be afraid of young people,” Cheng told a press conference at the legislature in Taipei yesterday. “At the age of 18, a young person has to take on full legal responsibility in criminal cases, pay taxes and an 18-year-old man has to serve his compulsory military service — it doesn’t make sense that they have so many obligations of a citizen, but do not have the right to vote.”
Cheng was referring to remarks that Ma made during a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Standing Committee meeting — in his capacity as party chairman — on Wednesday when Ma said he does not support lowering the voting age, as a government survey showed that as many as 55 percent of the public are opposed to it, while only about 30 percent support it, even though the proposal is one of the few legislative proposals supported by both the DPP and the KMT.
Cheng said that the issue concerns the rights of young people and therefore the views of the younger generation should take precedence.
“A survey conducted by the Taiwan Alliance for the Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare shows that as many as 70 percent of the nation’s young people support lowering the voting age,” Cheng said. “After all, the proposal aims to help young people obtain a right that’s been taken away from them by the elder generation.”
Alliance secretary-general Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said that the occupation of the legislature from March 18 to April 10 showed that young people are fed up with the current political system “and therefore we should allow them to express their views through their votes and make changes from within the system.”
Yeh said that she does not understand why the president said that he would like to have more young people participate in public affairs, but would rather create a panel of “youth advisers” rather than give young people the vote.
National Chengchi University student Shan Yi-che (冼義哲) agreed with Yeh.
“People criticize young people for not caring enough about public affairs on the one hand, while trying to stop us from voting on the other,” Shan said.
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