04

Youthful Ideas for Everyone

Malaysian Today, 19 June 2008

MUCH has already been said about youth activism during the March elections—there were young people canvassing for votes, young people organising the ceramah and above all, young people blogging about the key issues (or spreading rumours). For ages, our ruling politicians have worked with the assumption that policy should rest upon our racial identities, while others have tried in vain to define us by class. But the divide between young and old is perhaps the most real and growing—and yet, too often policy isn’t formulated with this in mind. We weren’t alive on Merdeka Day, Malaysia Day or 13 May 1969. We don’t know what it was like to live through World War II, the Emergency or Konfrontasi. In our childhood, we knew only Tun Dr Mahathir as our Prime Minister and to a great extent, we grew up with his legacy. Our political views were formed either in support or reaction to his policies, and we probably remember what our families thought of the sacking of Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Today, these two figures continue to provoke strong reactions.

“A third of Malaysia’s population is under the age of 15 … but now that a bunch of relatively young people have taken up office … perhaps younger viewpoints will start to be embedded in all policymaking instead of being the preserve of a specific ministry or department.”

But while it’s important that people are accountable for their actions of the past and that we all learn from history, we obviously want to look to the future. A third of Malaysia’s population is under the age of 15 (read that again) but now that a bunch of relatively young people—including Nurul Izzah Anwar and Khairy Jamaluddin—have taken up office, perhaps younger viewpoints will start to be embedded in all policymaking instead of being the preserve of a specific ministry or department.

Of course, youth awareness or interest in policymaking is still growing; there’s still a long way to go before public policy or politics attracts the same job aspirations as banking, law, medicine or management consulting. One way to address this would be to encourage more political activity in campuses but unfortunately, the stifling University and University Colleges Act 1971 remains in force, ‘in effect denying university students their constitutional rights to freedom of association and of speech’, according to Dr Azmi Sharom, Associate Law Professor at UM. But while the abolition of condescending regulations would be a good start, some would say the key challenge lies much earlier, when we’re in primary school: the people we see every day in the classrooms and at break time as children can immunise us from stereotypes for the rest of our lives. The teaching of history and citizenship are important, too and our education system has been criticised for not enabling young Malaysians to think in a way that challenges orthodox views.

Some of these weaknesses are reflected in our political system. Earlier this month, I was in Hong Kong to attend a conference between think tanks from the Pacific Rim. Most of the delegates were from the US, a few were from China and there were smatterings from Peru, Nepal and Australia. I was the only participant from Malaysia, representing the Malaysia Think Tank London. What brought us together was our underlying objective: we’re all trying to inculcate ideas of liberty and free markets in our own countries. Some of these think tanks tackle specific policy areas—health care or tax reform, for example—while others (like us) take a broader approach, supporting democratic institutions and encouraging debate on current issues. There are very few independent think tanks in Malaysia—most are attached to political parties—but hopefully, the expansion of policy space after 8 March will see a mushrooming of such organisations. When I worked in policy in London and Washington DC they were everywhere, lobbying politicians, supporting or condemning proposed legislation and suggesting new laws. They acted as forums, enabling citizens (very often, young people) to participate in the policymaking process, forcing political parties to listen: perhaps the recent petrol price hike (and indeed the response) would have been less shambolic if we had more influential think tanks here.

Instead, policy in Malaysia is often made behind closed doors with little engagement with the public. But one of the hallmarks of an advanced democracy is that all citizens can think, argue, make mistakes, change their minds and debate all over again—without getting hurt, incarcerated or killed—so that both government and opposition respond to the debates taking place. In this column, I hope to share some ideas that we encounter at the Malaysia Think Tank in our lectures, seminars and publications and hopefully, recruit some of you into our organisation.