(Kuala Lumpur, 28th) The Malaysian Youth Movement (YMM) strongly recommends postponing the full implementation of the law and maintaining the 'youth' age limit at 35 years old in order to better align with the actual youth development trajectory and social participation in our country.
YMM made an official response regarding recent remarks by the Minister of Youth and Sports, who stated that 'Malaysia can no longer use "not ready" as an excuse to refuse accepting the 30-year-old youth age limit.'
YMM reiterates that, as a member organization of the Malaysian Youth Council and one of the Eight Major Chinese Youth Organizations, it does not deny nor intend to overturn the bill that has already been passed in Parliament.
"However, the current youth ecosystem in our country is still in the stage of construction and adjustment. If the age limit for the youth definition is hastily lowered to 30 years old, it may bring a series of adverse effects, weakening the inclusiveness and sustainability of youth development policies."
YMM President Lim Soon Bin pointed out that lowering the youth age limit could trigger the following three major concerns:
1. Weakening the participation and succession ability of the middle generation of youth
Many youth aged between 30 and 35 are still playing critical leadership and succession roles in organizations. Excluding them from the youth definition would seriously impact the continuity of youth organizations' talent, leadership advancement, and experience transfer.
2. Reducing the representativeness and coverage of youth policies
Narrowing the age range would exclude a large number of youths who are in the stage of career and social advancement from relevant policies and resource support, further weakening their participation and representativeness in public policy formulation and youth issues.
3. Hindering the system maturity of the national youth development strategy
Youth development is a long-term strategy. Currently, our country has not established a complete succession mechanism and youth empowerment system. Hastily adjusting the age definition may affect the continuity of policies and the overall development of the ecosystem.
YMM emphasized that promoting broad youth participation in nation-building is a collective responsibility. "We support gradual advancement of youth policy reform, but only when the youth development system is more mature, organizational operations are stable, and policy coverage is comprehensive should the reform target of lowering the youth age to 30 be pursued."
Therefore, YMM calls on the government to re-examine the implementation timeline of this bill, widely consult the opinions of all youth organizations registered with the Registrar of Youth (ROY), listen to the actual needs and voices of grassroots youth, and jointly formulate a more flexible, phased transitional plan for youth policies.
YMM made an official response regarding recent remarks by the Minister of Youth and Sports, who stated that 'Malaysia can no longer use "not ready" as an excuse to refuse accepting the 30-year-old youth age limit.'
YMM reiterates that, as a member organization of the Malaysian Youth Council and one of the Eight Major Chinese Youth Organizations, it does not deny nor intend to overturn the bill that has already been passed in Parliament.
"However, the current youth ecosystem in our country is still in the stage of construction and adjustment. If the age limit for the youth definition is hastily lowered to 30 years old, it may bring a series of adverse effects, weakening the inclusiveness and sustainability of youth development policies."
YMM President Lim Soon Bin pointed out that lowering the youth age limit could trigger the following three major concerns:
1. Weakening the participation and succession ability of the middle generation of youth
Many youth aged between 30 and 35 are still playing critical leadership and succession roles in organizations. Excluding them from the youth definition would seriously impact the continuity of youth organizations' talent, leadership advancement, and experience transfer.
2. Reducing the representativeness and coverage of youth policies
Narrowing the age range would exclude a large number of youths who are in the stage of career and social advancement from relevant policies and resource support, further weakening their participation and representativeness in public policy formulation and youth issues.
3. Hindering the system maturity of the national youth development strategy
Youth development is a long-term strategy. Currently, our country has not established a complete succession mechanism and youth empowerment system. Hastily adjusting the age definition may affect the continuity of policies and the overall development of the ecosystem.
YMM emphasized that promoting broad youth participation in nation-building is a collective responsibility. "We support gradual advancement of youth policy reform, but only when the youth development system is more mature, organizational operations are stable, and policy coverage is comprehensive should the reform target of lowering the youth age to 30 be pursued."
Therefore, YMM calls on the government to re-examine the implementation timeline of this bill, widely consult the opinions of all youth organizations registered with the Registrar of Youth (ROY), listen to the actual needs and voices of grassroots youth, and jointly formulate a more flexible, phased transitional plan for youth policies.