Former US el presidente Barack Obama once made an impassioned plea to American voters, saying: “There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter. It all matters.”
He said this in 2016, but he wouldn’t be remiss if he repeated this to the currently not-so-popular folks at the Malaysian Election Commission (EC), who’ve just announced they’ll not be able to implement the much-awaited Undi 18 and automatic voter registration (AVR) this year.
We covered the sad tale of the EC’s decision in yesterday’s Between The Lines weekday newsletter. But for those of you who didn’t get it, here’s the tl;dr version – In a surprising show of solidarity, both Pakatan Harapan (then the ruling coalition) and opposition lawmakers voted back in 2019 in favour of amending the constitution to lower the minimum voting age to 18.
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Finally, our young Malaysians would be able to get their day in the democratic sun and let their voices be heard. And if glorious leader Muhyiddin Yassin keeps to his word of calling for snap polls once the Covid-19 pandemic ends, this could have been as early as this year!
Except, that’s not looking possible now. Our EC was supposed to have everything in place by July, but has since said that’s no longer the case thanks to the MCO (allegedly! allegedly!). The new date for Undi 18 is Sept 2022!
The commission’s promised Undi 18 prep is still ongoing, and it’ll publish an interim report in Sept this year. But not so fast, EC. Student groups are calling for more deets over the delay and for the interim report to be made public. Hear! Hear!
The opposition’s been quick to call the move politically motivated. But as both sides of the political divide have been readying their troops for GE15, surely, as Uncle Barack said, all votes matter, and it wouldn’t make sense for any one party to prevent a possible 1.2 million votes from coming in. Right?
Well, sure. Unless – and this is tinfoil hat territory here – you look at GE14 stats, which recorded that youth power (meaning those below 40) helped Harapan to the Putrajaya throne. To be more precise, about 80% of young-ish voters voted for the then opposition.
But who’s to say that’s even the case now? Did the then-government, now-opposition coalition justify that faith to the point that youth would still vote for them instead of then then-opposition, now-government coalition led, of course by a then-government, now-government PM and party. Do the youth even still have faith in a backstabby, traitorous, froggy political system that doesn’t seem to give a shit about things like an electoral mandate or the choice of the people?
In any case, Umno and Bersatu leaders have been quick to jump on the bandwagon to decry the EC’s news. PAS? Well, that’s another matter.
Former glorious leader turned troll master general Najib Razak got in on the action too. He said three years is too long to implement Undi 18 (we agree) and claimed Moo was keen to keep youth power out of the ballot box as it was believed young folks were not fans of the PN gomen (Jibby’s words, not ours).
Funny this, considering Jib’s BN gomen made no move to push for lowering the voting age back in 2017 when he called the shots and when Undi18 (the youth movement, not the Parliament Bill) first started a petition calling for this.
But wait, there’s hope for you young ‘uns yet. F̶u̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶i̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ Senior minister Mohamed Azmin Ali insists the PN gomen is committed to the cause and that there’s still time for you to vote. Seems GE15 will be in 2023, not 2021 or 2022, as many assumed. Silly us!
Commentary
Denying Our Young
Former US el presidente Barack Obama once made an impassioned plea to American voters, saying: “There’s no such thing as a vote that doesn’t matter. It all matters.”
He said this in 2016, but he wouldn’t be remiss if he repeated this to the currently not-so-popular folks at the Malaysian Election Commission (EC), who’ve just announced they’ll not be able to implement the much-awaited Undi 18 and automatic voter registration (AVR) this year.
We covered the sad tale of the EC’s decision in yesterday’s Between The Lines weekday newsletter. But for those of you who didn’t get it, here’s the tl;dr version – In a surprising show of solidarity, both Pakatan Harapan (then the ruling coalition) and opposition lawmakers voted back in 2019 in favour of amending the constitution to lower the minimum voting age to 18.
Sign up for the BTL Plus package for our daily newsletter if you haven’t already. Just RM10 a month! Sign up here.
Finally, our young Malaysians would be able to get their day in the democratic sun and let their voices be heard. And if glorious leader Muhyiddin Yassin keeps to his word of calling for snap polls once the Covid-19 pandemic ends, this could have been as early as this year!
Except, that’s not looking possible now. Our EC was supposed to have everything in place by July, but has since said that’s no longer the case thanks to the MCO (allegedly! allegedly!). The new date for Undi 18 is Sept 2022!
The commission’s promised Undi 18 prep is still ongoing, and it’ll publish an interim report in Sept this year. But not so fast, EC. Student groups are calling for more deets over the delay and for the interim report to be made public. Hear! Hear!
The opposition’s been quick to call the move politically motivated. But as both sides of the political divide have been readying their troops for GE15, surely, as Uncle Barack said, all votes matter, and it wouldn’t make sense for any one party to prevent a possible 1.2 million votes from coming in. Right?
Well, sure. Unless – and this is tinfoil hat territory here – you look at GE14 stats, which recorded that youth power (meaning those below 40) helped Harapan to the Putrajaya throne. To be more precise, about 80% of young-ish voters voted for the then opposition.
But who’s to say that’s even the case now? Did the then-government, now-opposition coalition justify that faith to the point that youth would still vote for them instead of then then-opposition, now-government coalition led, of course by a then-government, now-government PM and party. Do the youth even still have faith in a backstabby, traitorous, froggy political system that doesn’t seem to give a shit about things like an electoral mandate or the choice of the people?
In any case, Umno and Bersatu leaders have been quick to jump on the bandwagon to decry the EC’s news. PAS? Well, that’s another matter.
Former glorious leader turned troll master general Najib Razak got in on the action too. He said three years is too long to implement Undi 18 (we agree) and claimed Moo was keen to keep youth power out of the ballot box as it was believed young folks were not fans of the PN gomen (Jibby’s words, not ours).
Funny this, considering Jib’s BN gomen made no move to push for lowering the voting age back in 2017 when he called the shots and when Undi18 (the youth movement, not the Parliament Bill) first started a petition calling for this.
But wait, there’s hope for you young ‘uns yet. F̶u̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶i̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ Senior minister Mohamed Azmin Ali insists the PN gomen is committed to the cause and that there’s still time for you to vote. Seems GE15 will be in 2023, not 2021 or 2022, as many assumed. Silly us!
Illustration by Fahmi Reza
Fahmi Reza is one of Malaysia's most iconic political graphic artists and activists. Using his wizardry with the pen and his wicked sense of humour, he calls out government and political incompetence and deceit through graphics and posters.
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