PM10 recently just called a spade a spade by calling out the culture of making false promises and issuing fatwas or edicts based on political preferences, as well as corrupt practices among leaders, as among factors why young people have a trust deficit in the government when addressing a hall full of young people at a session with Public Service Department (PSD) scholars at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
When the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 and registration was made automatic with the gazetting of the legislation in Dec 2021, everyone touts the influx of new voters will be the game changer for GE15 as automatic registration means every citizen over the age of 18 can cast their ballots.
According to the Election Commission (EC), this resulted in a total of 21,173,638 individuals being eligible to vote in GE15, an increase of some 6.3 million eligible voters over GE14 in 2018 where there were 14.9 million registered voters.
In 2013, at GE13, 11.26 million Malaysians representing 85% of the eligible 13.27 million voters cast their ballots while in 2018, at GE14, a total of 11.35 million Malaysians, representing 76% of the eligible 14.96 million voters cast their ballots.
In 2022, at GE15, 15.67 million Malaysians representing 74.04% of the total eligible 21.17 million voters cast their ballots.
According to the EC, Malaysians aged 18 to 39 comprise half or 50.3% of the total eligible 21.17 million voters on the electoral roll for GE15 and from this group, there are 1,393,549 voters or 6.5% that are in the 18 to 20-year-olds age group while those in 21 to 29-year-olds make up 21.7%, and those in the 30 to 39 age bracket form 22.1%.
No one has the details – supposedly a secret - on how the additional 6.3 million voters who was `involuntarily’ included in the electoral roll, voted in GE15.
Moving forward, increasingly, the percentage of voters under 50 and below will increase exponentially from the 50.3% in Nov 2022 to no less than 55% come the next GE.
As at the end of 2022, there is approximately 1.4 million of male and 1.3 million females, a total of approximately 2.7 million Malaysians, in the 10 – 14 age group category.
Come GE16, which needs to be held no later than by 2027, a segment of this 2.7 million would be eligible to vote.
Thus, theoretically, more than half of the voters in the next GE comprising voters who are under 50 years will formally become the dominant voting bloc commanding no less than 55% of votes. Combined, this represents no less than 22 million (21.17 million eligible voters as at end of 2022 plus eligible voters from the present 10 – 14 age group who will be eligible to vote come 2027)
The young ones are more engaged and inclined in social media and thus engagements with them would be more far reaching as opposed to the practices of yesteryears.
It would be a whole different ball game. And these millions of voters under the age of 50 probably believed the current cluster of politicians dominating the country’s political landscape for the last 20 years had perhaps aged out of making the sweeping changes to the country many voters are demanding.
Probably half of these voters were not even born when the Reformasi project began. They have no first hand experience of the scandals that happened in the 90s and 2000 except probably for the 1MDB and the LCS debacle.
What they are witnessing now are the continuous attempts to undermine faith in the current government’s ability to govern.
Of course, the inability of certain of the political parties in the present government to read the will of the ordinary rakyat and the country is not helping.
Your casualness in wearing your long sleeves rolled up and shirt untucked resembles President Jokowi in Indonesia, is easily identifiable with a large section of the ordinary rakyat.
It is a world away from those smartly dressed politicians with the brown noses herding and condoning them away from the general masses.
For the younger generation who are used to instant coffee and instant gratification, there are no elders or juniors, only peers. They are conscious of gender.
Generally, they contradict the previous generation. The introduction of smartphones, bringing the realities of the world to the palm of their hands had an even greater impact than the internet to the earlier generations.
It produced the youths of today that are more independent and endlessly empowered than those before them.
Many of them believe the world owes them a living and parents owe them regular pocket money because it is their fault for sending them to school, college and university and then not being able to land them a job worth the certificate on which the qualification is neatly written.
They are known for using social media to share their world with the world, often an idealized version of their actual life, choosing their real-life experiences based on social share-worthiness.
Social media is becoming to the young what email, phones and fax were to the earlier generations to stay in touch and build connections.
The popular catchphrase "Insta or it didn’t happen” illustrates the importance placed by them on sharing through social media.
The young people set the standard for what was acceptable, expected and cool and the rest of us just followed if we wish to establish a rapport and understand them.
They are establishing a new norm for social media use and resetting the standard all generations will adopt.
They are interested in the bigger picture and where they fit in it.
While they are often thought of as idealists or dreamers about what can be, their concerns and priorities appeared to encapsulate both global and domestic in nature. They are coming of age in a time of increasing polarization and fragmentation in this country and elsewhere around the world.
They prioritize spending time on things they enjoy now rather than on things that will help them in the future.
They hope to make a difference in the world and solve some of the greatest problems facing society due to their mastery of social media and other digital tools available to them.
As PM10 said in his talk with the young people at UKM, transparency and trust are key to gaining the support of the youth in this country.
Transparency is the first step in establishing strong bonds with them regardless of segment.
Being transparent will help PM10 to gain their trust and provide them with a platform to remain authentic and connected.
This type of transparency creates the potential for greater equality and help to create an environment that embraces collaboration and inclusiveness beyond how it is understood today.
Throughout time, it has always been the youth in societies who have been the drivers of change.
Their ability to connect instantly and disseminate information globally is impacting us all at an accelerating rate.
Understanding who they are and what they want now will give PM10 the ability to predict what people of all ages will expect in the coming years.
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