KUCHING: Contentment with the current political situation in the country might have contributed to the majority of youths not bothering to register as voters.
Assistant Minister of Youth Development Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah who said this yesterday, believed apathy might play a part too.
“This was probably down to the fact that youths might feel content with the existing political scenario or just do not care,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
The Asajaya assemblyman was responding to the issue that youths made up the majority of the more than 400,000 people in the state yet to register.
In other countries, youths were the ones in the forefront of the political struggle because they felt ‘victimised’ by the existing system or government.
When asked whether it was necessary for the government to come up with some sort of intervention to get youths registered as voters, Karim said democracy was about freedom of choice. Not wanting to vote or register as voters are choices.
“Our present system does not make it mandatory for all citizens to vote or register as voters.
“If the people feel that voting should be made compulsory, and for those who do not vote to be penalised, then they can appeal to the government to amend the election law and make it an offence not to vote,” he continued.
He said if the opposition felt the government must force people to vote, they should take the lead for this election law to be reviewed. The country would then see whether youths would vote for the opposition.
It was reported in the media on June 27 that EC deputy chairman Datuk Wira Wan Ahmad Wan Omar had called on eligible voters in the state to get registered.
As of March 31 this year some 28.3 per cent of eligible voters have yet to register, which is a whopping 404,996 people.
“The 404,996 is a big number for a state like Sarawak. If this attitude of refusing to vote continues, it will soon reach half a million. Please change this attitude and register as voters,” advised Wan Ahmad when speaking at a press conference here.
In October last year, EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman suggested that Malaysians who turn 21 should be automatically registered as voters as this would solve the issue of inadequate number of voters at the ballot.
He said that of the 16 million eligible Malaysians, only 12.5 million are registered voters. Even with such a figure, he revealed that only 80 per cent turned up on election day to vote.
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