WHEN asked about the need for political education for young people in a recent interview with a school magazine, I said while it is important to target youth, it’s not as if adults in other age groups are fine and don’t need further education.

With the voting age lowered to 18 in 2020 and automatic voter registration introduced in 2022, teenagers are being courted by all political parties as a key demographic on the election campaign trail.

Most teachers feel the current curriculum is inadequate in preparing students with the right knowledge and information to vote rationally or to persuade them to spend time queuing to cast their ballots in the first place.

The phrase “political education” often gives people the wrong impression that such a session would be used by various parties to influence student votes.

While there may be a risk of certain self-promotional abuses or hidden agenda, the content of political education should go beyond glorifying one political party.

Political education is more than just voter education. The latter is usually concerned with the electoral process and not so much on what ordinary citizens or people can do outside the election period.

The history and civics lessons in the current curriculum talk about the political structure, organisation and role of certain institutions.

This is general knowledge that may not provide more guidance in understanding and differentiating political parties, what a voter should expect from and how to engage with their elected representative, and what a functioning democracy is and what it can do for the voters.

Sometimes it is common for the public to have greater reservations, distrust and cynicism towards politicians, painting them in broad strokes and thinking politicians are a bunch of selfish, Machiavellian people who use their position to gain more wealth, power and attention for themselves and their own kind.

However, people also seem to pay too much respect to elected representatives and government leaders in formal terms (e.g. “why bees (YBs)” is heard in everyday conversation) and look up to the leaders to solve many things in life, including demanding financial allocations for their personal or organisational purposes.

More importantly, political education should extend beyond youth so more voters across generations are not easily swayed by social media sensationalism and sentiments generated by certain quarters.

Race and religion cards are still often played to gain political mileage for some politicians and their parties. Hate speech can go viral, and it can disrupt the harmony of society.

But there are problems with some voters becoming irrational because they blindly follow or support a particular party or coalition without scrutinising its candidates and policies.

Worse, they make partisan, double-standard judgments, dancing to the tune of their favourite politicians and defending the mistakes on their side that they used to criticise in their opponents.

A mature democratic society cannot allow many people to view politics merely as a spectator sport.

One of the observable traits is during election night speeches, where you can usually see the herd mentality of crowds cheering for whoever is onstage, the speakers all acting like heroes against the “villains” from the other camp.

If these speeches are your source of information for your voting decision, with high hopes that they will deliver and act in your best interests, believing they cannot go wrong – then society needs more non-partisan political education.

The upcoming six state elections will be an important yardstick with which to measure the rationality of the electorate and how people scrutinise party candidates, manifestos and policies.

Those who may not be that well educated and experienced enough to separate truth from fiction; those who easily fall prey to politicians’ false promises, insincere words and lies and idolise some politicians and demonise others? They need political education.

Teaching people how to vote is important, but it is no longer enough.

Political education is about shaping society towards the path of rational political discourse for greater social good, nurturing and developing the maturity in democracy for public advocacy and mobilising people for change. – April 24, 2023.

* Lim Chee Han is a founding member of Agora Society and a policy researcher. He holds a PhD in infection biology from Hannover Medical School, Germany, and an MSc in immunology and BSc in biotechnology from Imperial College London. Health and socioeconomic policies are his concerns. He believes a nation can advance significantly if policymaking and research are taken seriously.

* 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.