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144 Haris Zuan

the voters to make informed decisions. ey also criticised candidates who
failed to address issues concerning stateless children in their manifestos. Prior
to the campaign period, Borneo Komrad co-organised a forum with Bersih 2.0
to educate voters on key electoral issues.
Youth mobilized online, as well. Especially notable was an online
campaign started just after the Election Commission announced that the
polling day would be mid-week, called ‘Jom Balik Undi’ (‘Let’s go home
and vote’). e polling date was expected to prove di cult for the many
voters who live and work far from where they vote, including in Singapore.
e initiative started on Facebook, where car-owners, regardless of ethnicity,
posted their travel plans for GE14, such as their destination, departure time
and date, number of seats available in their vehicle, and time and date of
their return journey. A group of university students also organized an online
crowd-funding campaign, #PulangMengundi (go home to vote), to sponsor
bus rides for fellow students to return home to vote. eir #SponsorAStudent
raised funds both from Chinese associations across Malaysia and the public
(Loh 2018). Hence, GE14 saw creative e orts to mobilize young voters and
stepped-up youth involvement with formal politics, both within and outside
political parties.

Conclusion

Just after the historic 9 May result, an UMNO youth leader (later elected the
new UMNO Youth chief) acknowledged that UMNO’s and BN’s failure to
secure the youth vote was one of the reasons for the coalition’s rst defeat after
being in power for 61 years (Utusan 2018). Pakatan Harapan is well aware
that, for the time being, the youth vote is in their favour. It is therefore not
surprising that the PH government proposed lowering the voting age from
21 to 18 (Syahredzan 2018). Even UMNO, having su ered its worst-ever
defeat, announced that it would lower its membership age from 18 to 16
(Khairil 2018). BN component-party the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC),
too, noted in August 2018 the need for political-education programmes to
cultivate successors to its current leadership (Palansamy 2018). Yet sparking
young people’s interest and granting access to youth form only part of the
issue; empowering youth to participate in decision-making also matters. PH
has an advantage not only among young voters, but also in elding younger
candidates. e PH parties’ comparatively relaxed structure and absence of
steep hierarchies facilitate their promoting young talent. ese qualities are in
contrast with the older UMNO and PAS, both of which have in place rigid
structures that make it di cult for youths to make it to the top.

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