THE lowering of the voting age to 18 must be accompanied by political and civic education for youth, say Malaysians, including Pakatan Harapan MPs, as Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s proposal gain support.

Social media users pointed to the state of the education system which they said did not prepare young people with enough knowledge about politics.

“Youth isn’t synonymous with progressive politics. Without Civics 101, it’s a half-baked victory,” said Twitter user RohanBeg.

Imran Sheik said he did not agree that 18 was old enough to vote.

“I don’t think our education system produces 18 y.o. with the optimal level of wisdom to chose their leaders,” he tweeted.

Dr Mahathir proposed that the voting age be lowered from 21 to 18 yesterday in an interview with The Malay Mail.

Pakatan Harapan lawmakers Fahmi Fadzil of PKR and Hannah Yeoh of DAP tweeted their support for the proposal but also called for voter education for youth.

“Make political literacy and exposure to democratic practices part of school culture and ‘kemahiran hides’ (living skills),” said Fahmi, who is Lembah Pantai MP.

Fahmi noted that a two-thirds majority in Parliament would be needed for the constitution to be amended to lower the voting age.

Segambut MP Yeoh said she agreed with the need for political and civic education as “many don’t know the difference between MP and ADUN”.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang urged that amendments to the law be made when Parliament goes into session next month.

“There may be various constitutional proposals to implement institutional reforms, but if it is not possible to secure the necessary two-thirds parliamentary majority to ensure passage, then let the Constitution Amendment Bill 2018 be just one stand-alone provision to lower the voting age from 21 to 18, so that Malaysia will not continue to be the odd man out in international society for democratic and electoral reforms,” the Iskandar Puteri MP said in a statement.

Lim said if Barisan Nasional, which is now the parliamentary opposition, were “constructive and effective”, they should readily agree to constitutional amendments on the voting age.

Lim said he had proposed for such a lowering of voting age in 1971 when he first became an MP

He had also proposed automatic registration of eligible voters and that voting be made compulsory.

“Since my suggestion in 1971, the majority of countries in the world have adopted this electoral reform but Malaysia seems to be frozen in time as far as democratic and electoral reforms are concerned.

“Malaysia is one of the handful of countries that have not carried out the electoral reform to lower the voting age from 21 to 18.

“Malaysia and Singapore remain the two countries in Asean where the voting age is still 21.” 

In Indonesia, the voting age is 17. – June 22, 2018.