Teach young to think critically before giving them voting power

While age may be a crucial factor when it comes to voting rights under the democratic political system, what matters most is political maturity, which is much needed in participatory democracy.

Recently, Parliament passed a bill lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. This decision will bring about ramifications that will affect the country’s future socio-political policies.

Are we ready to allow our 18-year-olds to decide the country’s political direction? One can readily spot the lack of maturity, including political maturity, among the younger generation today in Malaysia.

Our youths are more preoccupied with dabbling in technological trash.

In such an appalling situation, one needs to ask if it would be right to place the heavy responsibility of deciding the country’s leaders on the shoulders of these infant-minded, uncritical young minds.

This does not mean that those in their late teens or early 20s are incapable of making the right decisions.

Undeniably, there are well-exposed teenagers and youths in their early 20s who have the right political acumen to make sensible political decisions. However, sadly, they only make up a small portion of the younger generation.

The greater the voting population, the higher the chances for politicians to strengthen their power base. This is common knowledge and few would refute that numbers decide the power base.

In this context, one also wonders if political leaders have the genuine intention of empowering the young generation with decision-making responsibility or if the proposal is merely for political expediency.

What irks right-thinking minds more is that while the government machinery (even the previous administration) seems to take ages to revamp the ailing education system in the country, many in the government and even the opposition parties quickly jumped on the bandwagon to lend their strong support for the voting eligibility for these 18-year-olds.

There is no denying that some countries have fixed 18 as the minimum age for voting.

However, we must acknowledge the fact that the education system in these countries duly prepares their teenage voters for this civic duty, with the right exposure and critical thinking capabilities necessary to make sound decisions.

It is sad to see that Malaysia has still not fine-tuned its education system to churn out students who are capable of making the right decisions.

Having been a journalist for almost 20 years and an academic for the last 10 years, this writer has come across Malaysian students who do not even know who the country’s deputy prime minister is.

This is only one example, out of many, of how ill-informed students are and how they seem disconnected from the political realities of this country.

They lack critical analysis and a questioning mind. Under these circumstances, how can we expect them to critically analyse political issues and make a sound decision before electing righteous and capable leaders for the country?

What the government seriously ought to focus on now is strengthening the education system. It needs to revamp the entire outmoded education system urgently, right from the primary schools.

A sound education system should help churn out a generation with moral integrity, critical thinking skills and logical reasoning capacity.

We should prepare a resilient young generation capable of making sound decisions based on right reasoning.

To make this a reality, we need an education system that nurtures out-of-the-box thinking in students and churns out young minds with a sterling character.

Only with a sterling and unfaltering character, and sharp intellectual acumen, achieved through a well-planned education system, can we rely on the younger generation to make sensible political decisions.

V Chandrasekaran is an FMT reader.