Good grounds to lower voting age

IT is high time that we seriously look into lowering the voting age in our country from 21 to 18.

Since the 1960s, many countries including the United States, Australia and many European countries have lowered their voting age from 21 to 18.

But Malaysia, which practises the first-past-the-post electoral system, has held on to 21 as the voting age. Among the 10 Asean countries, only Malaysia and Singapore have not lowered the voting age.

The minimum voting age was introduced in 1957 when the Federal Constitution was formulated. Since the Age of Majority Act was passed in 1971, Opposition leaders and later some NGOs including Bersih have been pressing the government to lower the voting age to 18.

But the government has consistently held the view that only citizens aged 21 and above should be eligible to vote because:

1. Those who are 18 years old are still in the school-going group and are therefore not in the age of maturity;

2. Malaysian citizens who are 18 years old should concentrate on their studies instead of dwelling in politics; and

3. Lowering the voting age would not serve any purpose as there are still about 4.5 million Malaysians who have not registered as voters upon reaching the age of 21.

Everything is legal in Malaysia by the age of 18 except for voting. If citizens are considered mature at 18 as defined by the Contracts Act 1950, and they can enter into contractual obligations, then they should be given the right to vote.

On the matter of taking the oath of citizenship by registration, Article 18 of the Federal Constitution states that “No person of or over the age of eighteen shall be registered as a citizen under this Constitution until he has taken the oath as set out in the First Schedule.”

Therefore, it would be worth looking at lowering the voting age in Malaysia to 18 for the following reasons:

> More people would be enfran- chised and could therefore play a pivotal role in deciding who would become their elected leaders;

> If Malaysians who are 18 years old can be conscripted for the defence of the country, they should be allowed to vote too;

> Malaysia is a young nation with a greater percentage of young citizens in the population whose energy, contributions and ideas could be harnessed for nation building from an early age; and

> Political parties would want to win the votes of Malaysian youths; and to do this, they would have to pay more emphasis on the wants and needs of their younger electorate.

Throughout the world, people are maturing and completing their studies at an earlier age and they are also more exposed to issues and information.

It is therefore fair that they are given the opportunity to decide on their nation’s future.