JUNE 28 — I read with much interest the exclusive interview with the Malay Mail where our Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad suggested lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. As a young voter myself who voted for the first time last May, I am filled with foreboding with regards to this suggestion.
Many a student of the history of British politics would recall that Screaming Lord Sutch was the first to campaign in the UK for votes at 18 back in the 1960s. He was joking, of course. In those days, nobody except the Monster Raving Loonies Party (an actual British Party) thought that teen votes were a good idea. A few years later, Harold Wilson absurdly and selfishly pushed through votes at 18 in the hope of saving his government ( it didn’t). This had the frightful side-effect of putting teenagers on juries in the UK.
The supposed impetus for this, given by Harold Wilson at that time was that if an 18 year old could fight in the army and die for his country, he surely must be allowed to vote. This in my opinion should be a reason against lowering the voting age rather than for it. It is precisely because most 18 year olds are naïve and ardent for some desperate glory as Wilfred Owen so aptly put it, that they are more happy to dive into the vain horrors of war and die on the battlefield as compared to someone older and more mature. This naivety of youth therefore should not be awarded with the ballot box.
Now we are told that votes at 18 are desirable in Malaysia. Why-ever should they be?
In the letter to the editor dated 25 June 2018 by Jackie Lee, supporting the Prime Minister’s suggestion, among the reasons given to support lowering the voting age in Malaysia were that since it is fair, logical and reasonable where you may be criminally charged as an adult at 18; may ride at 16; may drive at 17; may smoke at 18; it is also fair, logical and reasonable for people at 18 to be allowed to vote.
I find this the height of silly jurisprudence. For one, all of the above ‘activities’ effect the person individually or perhaps a small number of persons surrounding the 18 year old and not the country as a whole.
Secondly, while not necessarily gaining more knowledge of history, economics, or political philosophy as they approach their 21st birthday and beyond, more young people do however start to gain their first inklings of living independently. They go through for the first time an entire term of parliament where they actually know what is happening, they buy their first car and perhaps gain a better ability to spot a con artist. They also have more opportunity to come out from the under the tutelage of parents and teachers and to think for themselves. They leave university and enter the corporate world, juggling not merely hypothetical assignments and essays but actual projects with real clients who unlike their kind and genteel lecturers, are not easily pleased. They must quickly learn how to make a living, manage a household, raise kids and maybe even starting a business themselves. All of these are important milestones which will definitely shape one’s political outlook.
We must tread very carefully therefore when it comes to deciding on whether the voting age should be lowered. Once we have lowered it, there is almost certainly no way of turning back the clock. Thus I feel that since our current parliamentary suffrage is not broken, we should not attempt to ‘fix’ it, lest we discover that our attempts to ‘fix’ our system would not only fail to produce anything worthwhile but rather will also destroy what good we currently already have.
In fact, there’s a much better argument for raising the voting age - I think 25 would be about right, as by then most people have at least some experience of the important things of life, especially paying tax and taking responsibility for children . The supposed ‘idealism’ that people praise in the young is almost always idealism at someone else’s expense.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
