JOHOR BARU: There is a critical need to educate youth on politics and their voting rights, say the voters who were the first to cast their ballots as Undi18 voters in the Johor elections in March last year.
“I cast my vote for the first time when I was 19 years old. Thankfully, I had some understanding of politics because of Pengajian Am (General Studies) in Form Six. And I kept myself up to date with the news,” said Wong Jun Kai, 20.
“That may not be the case for most of my peers. Many of them do not even know the difference between an MP and an assemblyman.”
He suggested there be a special module or programme in secondary schools that focuses on exposing first-time voters to the importance of taking part in the democratic process.
“Now that Undi18 is fully implemented, there should be some form of initiative to educate those in secondary schools about elections,” said Wong, who is awaiting to be enrolled in university.
He said that among important elements that should be included in such a module or programme were the functions of the Dewan Rakyat and state assembly, voter rights, and the roles of an MP and assemblyman.
“Teachers involved in educating students on this should make the learning process interesting by drawing from real-life situations. They should also be allowed to openly share their views without influencing students’ decisions,” he said.
Wong was among the 173,177 people aged between 18 and 20 who were eligible to cast their ballots in the Johor polls last year, making them the first in this age group to vote in elections in Malaysia.
Undergraduate Calvin Dcroix Manicam, 21, said that having elections in schools to choose student representatives would be a good way to expose youngsters to the democratic process.
“There are elections in universities for students to choose their representatives and I think it is a good exercise to form an understanding of elections.
“Now that the voting age has been lowered, such elections should also be done at secondary schools, not just in the university or pre-university level.
“This could be accompanied with an academic module that educates students on how democracy works in Malaysia as well as other countries,” he said.
University student Mohd Haziq Abu Bakar, 21, said: “I am glad that the voting age has been lowered but it happened too suddenly. There were no steps taken to prepare us to vote.
“Something should be done to make sure that the next batch of young voters are more politically aware or there would be no point in lowering the voting age,” he said.
Mohd Haziq urged those who would be voting for the first time in the state elections to do their own research before casting their ballots.
Malaysian Education Concorde Organisation (Me’didik) chairman Mohd Ridhwan Othman said that while he agreed that youth should be exposed to the democratic process, it should not be a compulsory subject or module.
A better way to expose students to such issues, he said, would be through activities such as debates and public speaking where they would be encouraged to do their own research.
When contacted, Johor education, information and communication committee chairman Norliza Noh said the state government was coming up with a special module on politics and nationhood for secondary school students.
“We are still in the planning stage. There are many things that need to be taken into consideration,” she said.
In December last year, Norliza told the state assembly that the Johor government intends to have such a module following the lowering of the voting age to 18.
