By Salawaty Supardi
KUALA LUMPUR, April 12 2013 (Bernama) — Fielding new and young faces as its candidates in the 13th general election (GE13) may give Barisan Nasional (BN) an advantage to win the hearts of young voters.
Yet, several political observers also think that some old faces can still get the support of the young voters if they can help championing their aspirations and needs.
Universiti Utara Malaysia politics and international studies lecturer Md Syukri Shuib said the young voters would not reject senior BN candidates in the general election if they believed that the candidates were able to ensure brighter future for the Generation Y.
“Age is not really a factor. What matters most is the ability of these senior candidates to fulfill the needs and demands of the young voters, especially in this 21st century,” he told Bernama.
Md Syukri also proposed to BN to have 60 per cent of its candidates aged below 60, while the other 40 per cent between 30 and 40 years.
On the perception that young candidates have less experience and knowledge to serve as elected representatives, Md Shukri said:
“How can they gain the experience if they were not given the chance? That is why the combination of the senior and junior candidates is vital…to create the sharing and teaching aura.”
His view was shared by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia geostrategist Prof Dr Azmi Hassan who said that the combination was also important to strengthen the party and to ensure that there exists an element of check and balance.
However, he said the young candidates must be a public figure who had been active in non-governmental organisation or students’ association activities.
“If they are not well-known and have never been active in such activities, they probably don’t have the experience of dealing with the people and will find it hard to serve as elected representatives,” he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Youth Council president Maliki Mohamed Rapiee said it was important for BN to field a candidate, whether young or old, who understood the aspiration of Generation Y.
He said this was because almost 42 per cent or 5.5 million of the 13 million voters who would cast their votes in the GE13 are young voters aged below 40 years.
Mohamed Maliki said the best way for young candidates to win the hearts of the young voters were to be transparent and honest and to implement programmes and initiatives with benefits that would not take too long to be enjoyed.
For president of Belia 4B Malaysia, Muammar Ghadafi Jamaluddin, BN should field a candidate who could listen to the problems and fulfill the aspirations of all men, women, young and old, in a bid to win the GE13, which was deemed the mother of all elections.
However, he also agreed with Md Syukri’s view that the young candidates should be given the chance, while the veterans should not think that their contributions and service were no longer needed.
“Just believe that each individual is in a learning process, the seniors must teach the juniors, but if there is too many seniors, the transformation process will be slow.
“How much longer the ‘senior citizens’ must take care of the young? Let the young people take care of their seniors now,” he added.
— BERNAMA
