Power in the hands of youth

Ah ha and there you are. By the next general election, about 20% of the voters could comprise those in the early 20’s.

And it could be more than the percentage taking account into those in the 30’s or early 40’s who are in the young voters bracket.

The Election Commission is expecting about two million new voters by the next election and this development must have sent shivers to the Barisan Nasional which was dealt with a serious blow in the March 8 general election when there was a big swing of votes to the opposition Pakatan Rakyat which will soon formalise its pact.

Nevertheless, it is still too early to say whether these two million new voters will all cast their votes for the opposition in the next general election as new political development may take place every minute leading up to the big day in 2013 or even earlier which may swing the votes.

But looking at the trend as it goes now and as shown in the March 8, the indication is that young voters are more prone to vote for the opposition, especially in the urban areas.

I agree with Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research executive director, Ibrahim Suffian that one reason why youngsters tend to favour the opposition is that they do not feel indebted to the Government that achieved independence 51 years ago.

Having talked to several close friends who are involved one way or another in politics, it seems that all of them have come to a conclusion that the existing political leaders have lost track of what the young generation wants.

A foreign political scientist who observed the state election in 2006 for instance had found in her findings that one of the reasons why the Chinese dominant political party, SUPP lost its eight seats was due to the fact of age factor of its candidates. She had said that this is extremely unhealthy trend leading to the disastrous outcome.

So, what is actually wrong and why that the young people seem not to support the ruling coalition?

I guess this is a million dollar question but I am pretty sure that those who occupy the political office must have an answer to this deep in their hearts.

As we are moving and trying to catch up with the face pace of development in this world of no mercy, the young generation who is synonymous with iPod, blogosphere and Pussycat Dolls are looking at things differently.

In the 1970’s or 1980’s, political talks laced with promises of development or unity may gather large crowd to throng the ceramah but try today if one dares, and you end up having only skeleton few of hardcore supporters listening to such rhetoric.

Economy, education, fairness, equality, transparency and so on have taken over jargons like development and unity or solidarity for the young people do not understand what our forefathers had gone through prior to the independence.

In order for both the political divides to grab this precious group of young voters come the next elections, some painstaking decision ought to be taken to engage the young people to give them a sense of hope and future.

Failure to do so may spell doom to any political parties but alas, it seems that despite many setbacks and missed opportunities to correct the incorrect, change in certain political parties still remains stagnant and moribund.

The opposition DAP for instance has seen the grooming of many young political aspirants like Tony Pua, Hannah Yeoh, Teo Nie Ching, just to name a few, which has turned the eyes of the young people towards supporting the cause of the party.

Kudos to the opposition in this respect.

The party says Ibrahim Suffian managed to capture young votes because it gave new blood the chance of running in elections and many of these candidates won and one can judge their performance by the good coverage they are getting.

Umno Youth Chief, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin says it right that young voters are making their presence felt and this is a phenomenon that requires attention and understanding.

He further says the parties’ leaders need to change, otherwise “they will be changed by the electoral process.”

It will be harder to campaign on the basis of track records and the social contract, quoting Ibrahim Suffian, as these things are too remote to younger people and when you talk to people, you can sense that they are more pragmatic and they will choose a government that works.

So, I guess the indications are all there. Let’s not wait, Sirs, until the indicator level beams with orange or red for it will be too late then to send SOS.