Lessons From #UNDI18

Last Saturday, I went to a forum conducted in Universiti Malaya. With the #UNDI18, it discusses about the needs, pros & cons of lowering the legal voting age in Malaysia initially from 21 to 18.

For your information, Malaysia is 1 of the only 10 nations that sets legal voting age at 21. Which means 90% of global voters actually can start voting from 18 years old. Not surprising at all, since 18 years old all around the world, including Malaysia, are legally considered as an adult. They are legally responsible for crimes, allowed to own properties, able to sign contracts, allowed to get married, eligible to join army, and able to drive legally.

So, why not Malaysia lowers the legal voting age? What do you think? Should or should not we do it? Why?
Drop your comments down there, I would love to hear it.

For me, instead of giving a yes or a no, I just want to write this to share a few things that I've learned during the forum, which consist of the combination of the highlights of the forum, and my own thoughts & views.

1. There is no exact way to measure maturity.
Like intelligence, we cannot exactly measure maturity. It's:
- diverse within one-self - one may have maturity in one field, but may lose common sense in another field
- diverse within people - people have different levels of maturity, regardless of age
- an internal state - regardless of one's maturity, he/she can seem mature/immature

The current education system has already shown us how imperfect we are in measuring intelligence. Yes, it's systematic enough, but of course it has still many weaknesses & many criticisms are being imposed onto the ways of measuring it, and even the act of measuring itself.
And yes, we can somehow evaluate it & use the evaluation to put people in their places accordingly, but ultimately we can never know for sure someone's intelligence.

This is already a hot topic with many apparent loopholes. And now, we want to measure maturity too? Good luck with that.

2. As adults, we may disagree with each other, but let's trust each other.

We possess differences, especially in knowledge & beliefs. So, we can tell people what we believe in, and we can try our very best to convince them, but ultimately they are ones to decide. Regardless of how right or wrong their decisions might be, just trust them & pray for them.

Everyone, including ourselves, cannot be 100% right. But we cannot be 100% wrong either. Since everyone is imperfect, we learn from each other to improve our weaknesses & enrich our strengths.
Ultimately, in making decisions, it is up to the individuals to decide.
If it's right, then it's right. And they can freely try to convince others to do so.
If it's wrong, as adults, they should be wise enough to manage their mistakes accordingly, and they will learn the lesson, and convince others to not do what they did,

Yes, in reality, it is not as easy as that. In fact, in certain conditions, that is inapplicable & we have no other choices than to force people's behaviour to do or to not do something (ultimately we cannot force people to believe in something).
(Example: suicide trials, attempts of harming others, etc)
But the philosophy still holds true, and we should try our very best to implement it.

3. Rebut arguments, with arguments.
Not with slander, insults, potty language, ignorance, hatred, anger, etc.
Just with arguments. It's as simple as that.
Because when you rebut arguments with things other than arguments, you have already lost.

Except with one answer as exception: I don't know.

Because, unlike those inappropriate answers that make you lose in the first place, when you say you don't know, you are not necessarily losing. You just don't know. So, just tell the other party that you don't know & you will try to look for the answer afterwards.

After you know, then you'll know you win or you lose.

Meh, actually I believe that in discussions & debates, there are not winning or losing parties. The winner is the topic itself.

If I changed my stand at the end, I won't be a loser. I just changed my thoughts based on the solid arguments that my opponents presented to me. The topic wins.
If I still stick to my opinion, I am not a winner either. I just happen to have what it takes to change the opponent's mind. In this case, the topic wins onto the opposing team.

So yeah, not necessarily connected with #UNDI18, but it is just a few things that I've thought & learnt. I think the general takeaway lesson is, one of the important aspects of maturity is the ability to discuss & debate about differences to uphold the truth, but at the same time can still be realistically open to differences & practically let others express their beliefs.

After the forum ended, there was a tea-time session, and I got a chance to chat with one of the panels. I believe that she is one of the members of  the university's MPP (Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar = Students' Representative Council).
(FYI I came quite late to the venue that I missed the introduction of the panels)

According to her, she believes that #UNDI18 is not just about lowering the voting age. Instead, she believes that #UNDI18 is about reforming social construct. Being aware that regardless of age, there are not that many people who care about politics, she believes that this movement can increase the awareness of youths to generally be more mature & less childish.

And I agree with her. I actually believe that youths are underestimating the potential of their own selves, so they spend their golden youth age with unbeneficial things. This may be largely due to there are many areas & fields that the youths feel that are 'not for them' because they are 'only for adults'.
But aren't youths adults too? Wreckless, immature, hasty adults indeed. But aren't they adults too?

If we can increase the awareness to everyone that youths are capable of doing things that everyone thought they couldn't do, the youths themselves will stop messing around & actually divert their energy to things that really matter & things that deserve attention & efforts. Then we can see improvements in various aspects of life.
Not just in politics, but in many more fields.
Not just in their life, but also in everyone's life.

A better life, that's ultimately what we want, right?

facebook.com