Young Malaysians are likely to get more power after backing 93-year-old Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to topple a regime that ruled the Southeast Asian nation for six decades.
Malaysia is “very serious” about reducing the voting age to 18 before the next elections due by 2023, Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, 25, told Bloomberg in an interview in Kuala Lumpur.
The two-month-old Cabinet plans to ask the Malaysian Attorney-General’s office to look into what laws need to be amended, he said.
Photo: Bloomberg
Lowering the voting age to 18 from 21 would add an additional 3.7 million voters, Saddiq said, increasing the number of registered voters by about 25 percent from the election in May.
Voters aged 21 to 39 make up about 40 percent of the Malaysian electorate, twice the number of voters over 60, according to Election Commission of Malaysia data.
“That means the youth voter block becomes bigger and stronger, and therefore, they cannot be sidelined in the Malaysian political scene anymore,” said Saddiq, a member of Mahathir’s political party and Malaysia’s youngest-ever Cabinet minister.
High youth unemployment proved to be a critical factor in the vote that ousted former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, who championed economic policies favoring the Malay majority and now finds himself facing charges in a corruption probe at state fund 1 Malaysia Development Bhd.
Najib, who denies wrongdoing, had made a last-ditch effort to woo younger voters on the eve of the election, pledging income tax exemptions for those aged 26 years and below.
Unemployment among Malaysians aged 15 to 24 stood at 10.8 percent last year, World Bank data show.
That is more than three times the national rate of 3.3 percent.
Joblessness among local graduates increased more sharply than non-graduates since 2011, according to data from the Malaysian central bank.
“The youth care about two primary issues,” Saddiq said. “One is about bread and butter issues, which is cost of living, affordable housing, good employment opportunities and quality of life.”
The second is getting their voice heard in the nation-building process, Saddiq said.
“Power should be returned back to the people,” he said. “That means opening up more democratic spaces, which means more young people can join and speak up.”
About 75 percent of younger voters backed the opposition, said Ibrahim Suffian, the executive director of pollster Merdeka Center, which tracks voter sentiments.
The Merdeka Center estimated a voter turnout of about 81 percent for young people, with urban areas of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor seeing more young people outpacing their elders in casting ballots.
“Young voters are the true kingmakers in the elections — they were the ones who brought us into government,” Saddiq said. “But also a word of caution, they could also be the ones who take us out from government, because they are not loyal to any political party.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in