Bernard Wooley
There is a deep well of rage inside of me. Rage about how I as an individual have been treated in philosophy; rage about how others I know have been treated; and rage about the conditions that I’m sure affect many women and minorities in philosophy, and have caused many others to leave. Most of the time I suppress this rage and keep it sealed away. […] Whatever the numbers say about women and minorities in philosophy, numbers don’t begin to tell the story. Things may be getting better in some contexts, but they are far from acceptable. – Sally Haslanger, Changing the Ideology and Culture of Philosophy: Not By Reason (Alone)
I write this article in a similar circumstance of rage as Professor Haslanger. While I hope I am not unintentionally dismissing the struggles of women in philosophy, the struggles that women face in philosophy could almost as easily apply to how Malaysian youths are treated in New Malaysia.
I find myself asking in this paper the same questions that Professor Haslanger asked from the perspective of women – why isn’t there more youth representation in politics? I find myself arriving at the same answers as well – that there are very few of us who can take the outright discrimination that is present in Malaysian politics. We are marginalized through the setting of boundaries for youth commentary and inquiry. Dismissed, through the lack of perceived experience and maturity. Ignored, because the youth are uncivil and are too demanding for the supposed nuances of government.
It is hard to find a place in Malaysian politics that isn’t actively hostile towards the youth, or at least assumes that a successful politician or activist should look and act the part of a veteran who has seen some action on the ground, as well as on the floors of Parliament, partaking in the partisan squabbling of the day. We are still ignored in a space where we are supposed to feel “at home” in an environment of competitive, highly judgmental, egotistical and hostile group of older elites who strive to get their own partisan agenda across.
Rhetoric, civility and deviancy
Things get worse when you listen to the rhetoric by politicians and older people alike. Now, I do not place these statements here to garner any sympathy, but I want to highlight the depth of this patronizing discourse around youth involvement in politics. A shining example of this is when Maszlee Malik, the Minister for Education, met with student activists about his tenure as the president of IIUM. The language he used to describe how he intends to bring “the glory of IIUM” back single-handedly, opening water bottles for the student activists and sheepishly advising them not to smoke is an indication of how badly we treat the opinions of the youth (testimony from the student protestors there). We don’t see the youth as equal to us, but we treat them as an ‘other’ that has to earn their supposed merit and lived experiences to even begin to have a say in Malaysian politics.
Further, youths like us are seen as potential sites for deviancy – our minds are not mature and so, are more inclined to commit acts outside our social and cultural norms. Deviancy, in this case, is not talking about the ill-informed acts of certain people, but more of an encompassing discourse that the youth are perpetually naughty, if you will. This perception of deviancy impacts how the youth is perceived as the supposed future leaders of the country. Those without these merits of age and “hard-earned experience” must continue to live under the virtuousness of elders who bear imagined/physical traits of leadership and intelligence that goes beyond what the perceived immature youth minds can comprehend.
The solutions to the issues that youths face today, and their activism in pursuit of these solutions, are equally as egregious. The idea of being civil in asking for our rights has given the opportunity to the political class to ignore and shut us out from politics. Other youths, in line with the rest of the older political class, insist that their efforts to include more youth in the ministries and Parliament would ensure the advocacy of youth issues. Again, as we have seen, nothing has resulted from that as well. In addition, the youth who tend to put forward these arguments that civility is the only option to changing the discourse of politics of youth have the choice of removing themselves from the state of oppression. They do not face the same oppression of opinions because they have the political and socioeconomic clout that is needed to ensure that those youth problems don’t affect them. In essence, when a youthful bureaucrat in the government wishes to push forward an agenda, they don’t face the same resistance as when student protestors get arrested for protesting Maszlee Malik’s IIUM Presidency.
The illusion and realities of progress
In light of this ignorance from the bureaucracy that runs our lives, we have a growing number of youth issues that need to be tackled – fast. In terms of women’s rights (and one that enrages me to no end as a budding urban planner), sexual assault cases on public transport and our public spaces. The lack of green and public spaces for us to be creative and have our voices heard. The right to a good education in institutions that is independent from government control. The right to a fair wage when we start work early in life to pay off our PTPTN loans. These are issues that affect how we develop ourselves as human beings who can contribute to society; how we interact and form our cities, towns and public spaces to benefit everyone; as well as how we learn our political aptitudes to even intelligently discuss politics relative to the things around us and how we interact with them.
I do acknowledge that progress has been made to ensure Malaysian politics is more inclusive. We have the youngest Malaysian woman in the Ministry of Science, Environment and Technology, Yeo Bee Yin. We have Syed Saddiq in the Ministry of Youth and Sports. We have more young MPs than ever before. However, we on the ground, the normal students studying in our colleges and universities, are still finding our involvement in politics dictated by the people on top. They do this while also encouraging us to participate in partisan politics and suppressing grassroots youth activism as a way to get out from this dictatorial system. Thus, this argument is particularly patronizing – the circular logic of the older elites serves only to reinforce their perception of youths as immature and inexperienced. They have to do so much more to start listening and advocating for the ideas of the youth. As the youths of Malaysia, we have to call for an equal platform with everybody else in this country for a voice, and a hand in changing our Malaysia for the better.
So, to the old political class who keeps demanding for youth involvement in politics – look yourself in the mirror and see why the youth despise your kind of politics. You do not answer to our concerns because you keep harping on about how your political conveniences should come first before everything else. If you want to work with us, learn to listen to us and (at the very least) treat our concerns as importantly as your political conveniences. Here’s a bonus round for the political elites – put aside your political conveniences and actually act in the best interests of everyone in this country, both young and old!
But until that happens, please get out of our way, because we’re running out of time – and you’re slowing us down. We are getting to work ourselves on the ground, creating movements to get people of all ages together for our causes.