Lowering the 'youth' age limit will trigger a crisis
Wong Sook KimPublished: Apr 2, 2014 4:16 PM | Updated: Apr 2, 2014 4:28 PM
The Young Buddhists Association of Malaysia (YBAM) disagrees with the answer provided by the Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin during the question-and-answer session in the parliament on March 26, 2014. He mentioned that the ministry is looking at the possibility of reducing the definition of ‘youth’ to 25 or 30 years old, and not the present 40 years old, which means all youth organisations’ members and leaders shall be that age or under as defined by law.
YBAM strongly opposes this suggestion and appeals to the government to maintain the definition of ‘youth’ as a maximum of 40 years old. Before the age of 25, many youths have just started to work, and some have not even graduated from university.
These below 30 are just starting to experience various events in life, and thus they are still unstable in both daily life and work, and it will be difficult for them to balance both sides and still be actively participating in youth organisations, or even becoming a leader.
On the contrary, the government should allow more freedom for student organisations in institutes of higher learning, and encourage the undergraduates to actively interact with youth organisations in the communities, so that they would be connected to society. However, with the constraint imposed by the Universities and University Colleges Act, we are yet to see the determination of the government to grant more freedom to undergraduates.
The government may define or re-interpret the age limit of ‘youth’ in population censuses or other surveys, but from the youth organisations’ point of view, lowering the age limit will impede the development of youth organisations, as well as hampering the youth organisations from functioning properly and playing their roles in society.
Khairy also mentioned that the ministry was fine-tuning the draft and the proposal was expected to be tabled at the cabinet meeting in November.
However, YBAM requests that the minister should call a meeting of youth organisations, including the Malaysian Youth Council, in order to understand better the current situation, and not to submit such a proposal to the cabinet, obtain its approval, and then announce it to youth organisations, since lowering the age limit will trigger a crisis in all youth organisations.
WONG SOOK KIM is secretary-general of the Young Buddhists Association of Malaysia (YBAM).
YBAM strongly opposes this suggestion and appeals to the government to maintain the definition of ‘youth’ as a maximum of 40 years old. Before the age of 25, many youths have just started to work, and some have not even graduated from university.
These below 30 are just starting to experience various events in life, and thus they are still unstable in both daily life and work, and it will be difficult for them to balance both sides and still be actively participating in youth organisations, or even becoming a leader.
On the contrary, the government should allow more freedom for student organisations in institutes of higher learning, and encourage the undergraduates to actively interact with youth organisations in the communities, so that they would be connected to society. However, with the constraint imposed by the Universities and University Colleges Act, we are yet to see the determination of the government to grant more freedom to undergraduates.
The government may define or re-interpret the age limit of ‘youth’ in population censuses or other surveys, but from the youth organisations’ point of view, lowering the age limit will impede the development of youth organisations, as well as hampering the youth organisations from functioning properly and playing their roles in society.
Khairy also mentioned that the ministry was fine-tuning the draft and the proposal was expected to be tabled at the cabinet meeting in November.
However, YBAM requests that the minister should call a meeting of youth organisations, including the Malaysian Youth Council, in order to understand better the current situation, and not to submit such a proposal to the cabinet, obtain its approval, and then announce it to youth organisations, since lowering the age limit will trigger a crisis in all youth organisations.
WONG SOOK KIM is secretary-general of the Young Buddhists Association of Malaysia (YBAM).
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