IN the next general election, the millennials and Gen Z potentially could become the largest voting bloc. A portion of the rakyat – those who have voted in the previous elections – hopes that with the values these young people have, their anticipated participation in our electoral process will provide hope for the future and address the pressing issues that concern them.

These young people, born after the mid-90s, grew up with the internet, smartphones and social media. They also grew up watching and sometimes joining movements for more equality, fairness, and safety for all.

They are not a monolith. Among all young people, there are stark differences, by race and gender, in their opinions about politics, their belief in their generation’s ability to create change, and their intention to act on that belief at the ballot box and beyond.

These differences by gender, and by race and ethnicity, may be due both to people of different backgrounds with varied experiences of the political system, as well as recent political events and controversies.

Do these young people view events along the same values and morality as their elders? Reportedly, these young people are more disenchanted, rather than apathetic, with the current political behavior in this country.

This disenchantment often manifests itself in non-enrolment or non-alignment with established parties, preferring participation through issue-based politics, and involvement in protests where young adults might not define their actions as political, even though they are.

It is both about the young people’s conception of all things political as well as their awareness of doing something along these lines.

They are seeing their friends become more political over these past few years, with communities of young people of various backgrounds coming together to make positive change and defining themselves in opposition to older generations who, they believe, have failed them.

Some see themselves as part of a rising, politically engaged generation and they have the power to change things dramatically if people demand it.

This energy and enthusiasm can be a crucial motivator of political engagement. These groups of young people employ contentious politics with a regularity and ferocity uncommon to the existing political parties.

To paraphrase from IT into the business world: disruptive power into the existing political structure.

Would the existing political parties and their politicians sit by idly and allow this to disrupt the status quo?

Common sense will dictate that the existing dominant political institutions will place constraints, which serve to limit the movement of this disruptive power.

First, a pattern of building structural constraints, which use laws, rules and norms to restrict legalisation of the activities of these young people, eg delaying the passing of the Undi18 bill, which led to the Undi 18 movement getting a court order to compel the government to pass an act of Parliament.

The protracted delay in Muda’s registration as a political party was another instance.

Second, the existing dominant political institutions will gradually co-opt these groups into mainstream politics, thus neutralising them.

This can be seen in the upcoming Johor elections where Pakatan Harapan and Warisan are actively engaging with Muda, ostensibly to provide a platform for young people.

These patterns of political development suggest growing constraints on the potential power of the young people.

Muda and Undi 18 should be well aware that young people’s political energy and engagement does not necessarily translate into votes. Young people are far from uninformed about politics.

Their failure to embrace any of the dominant political institutions is largely driven by doubts that these parties represent their views, coupled with scepticism about their efficacy.

Instead of becoming enmeshed in these political developments, these young people should maximise their influence and employ their power in synergistic ways, so that they get to exercise their political power differently from the dominant political institutions.

Having struck major legal victories to get themselves registered and for their stated objectives to be signed into law, young people should hone their strategies and innovate new forms of power before participating in the electoral process.

For instance, if the problem is that voters are poorly informed – they don’t know that political inaction or corruption affects their daily lives – why not help them become better informed?

Why not publish data in accessible form about the health and education outcomes of each politician’s constituency, and how the government is performing in improving these?

Canvass for legislation for multiple terms in office to be discouraged as they will necessarily blunt dedication.

Yes, realistically, politicians will not pass laws for this because it is not in their own interests but the idea is to encourage politicians to think ahead and pursue more long-term policies that would deliver growth.

Canvass stringent requirements regarding who is eligible to run for office. Ideally, aspiring politicians should be educated and experienced with demonstrated managerial abilities and knowledge of public administration.

To ensure the political class agrees to it, this requirement is not retroactive and is applicable only to new incoming candidates.

Research has demonstrated that ideologies and habits of political engagement can be transferred to parents from their children as well.

The causal link can go both ways. Promote engagement and teach and model voting habits among young people where they include their families and their parents in political discussions.

The nation is in search of its soul and moral purpose. Due to the fractured nature of the politics in our country for now and the foreseeable future, the government and its successors are at high risk for serious, repeated, and frequent failures in their attempt to deliver policies.

It has been led by a succession of timid, reckless, exploitative or opportunist prime ministers ruling a country that is sliding down the competitive ladder to places that even neighboring countries – whose people used to flock here searching for a better life – are now ranked ahead of us economically.

Inequality has grown like a cancer. The heady days of the country’s economic ails buffeted by our oil reserves and commodities obscured deeper cracks in our economic system.

The political elite became arrogant about their power, arguing that they did not need to heed or address the needs of the minority races in the country.

What did we get? Resentment is rising and there are disputes everywhere. Federal mismanagement – including fraud, waste, and abuse – is a chronic problem.

Our policy system suffers from information deficiencies, inflexibility, a credibility problem, and mismanagement.

Government failure reflects the fact that information is costly to gather, assess, deploy, and keep up to date.

Government is therefore ill equipped to adapt its goals and instruments to changing technological, economic, and political conditions.

Instead of civic renewal, the country is mired in culture wars that chip away at the foundations that made the country strong in the first place.

Federal government is taking on ever more responsibility for managing our lives. At the same time, Malaysians have never been more disaffected with it and all politicians, including those from the opposition, seeing it as an intrusive, incompetent, wasteful giant.

Regulations, created out of momentary political alignments or the emergency in 2021 have long outlived their original purpose, continues and the rakyat and industries have become dependent on this artificial protection.

By calling BR1M a success just because people are receiving cheques when the programme itself is fundamentally insecure, is akin to acknowledging Bernie Madoff a success story.

Parts of the nation hope to see the young people pursue a political system where accountability is the top priority and enforced stringently.

Everyone is accountable to the rule of law and accountable for their own actions.

A part of this nation is still hopeful and want to actively create a better future for our country with the young people of this country.

The present voters do not wish to have darkness visiting, calling us old friends and talk to us come the next general election. – March 1, 2022.

* FLK reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.