Gen Z’s waning interest in politics
THE Undi 18 movement has failed to bring political awareness to the younger generation, said local students from the Generation Z (Gen Z).
(The Malaysian Reserve) – Some even admitted to lose faith on the current political system as change made in the previous general election seemed to be “pointless”.
Advance Tertiary College (ATC) student Aaron Joe Gabriel Melvin Joe, 20, said most people from his generation consume a lot of social media content and that those who voted made their decisions based on what they saw on TikTok, apart from what they learned from their parents.
“Yet, politicians did not take advantage of this to better reach the new generation of voters.
“Out of 100 of the young voters, maybe only 20% took the initiative to better understand politics,” he told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) after attending the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) open discussion at ATC last week.
He added, however, that they are familiar with major controversies such as the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal albeit vaguely.
“We only know the surface of it and not enough to take any action about such issues,” he noted.
Ryan Thong Zen Loong, 20, opined that Malaysia’s political system is pointless.
“I am not surprised if a lot of 18-year-olds do not want to vote. What is the point if all politicians turn out to be the same?
“If you vote for a smaller party, there is a high chance that your vote will not matter because the bigger fish will almost always win,” he said.
Ryan admitted that for law students, he and his friends’ interest in politics is pretty low.
“You cannot blame us, we have simply lost faith in politicians based on what we have observed,” he added.
He said even if the younger generation wants to participate in the political scene, they have no funds to pursue it, adding that Gen Z prefers to just leave it to the adults.
Fay Lauren is currently studying for the Foundation studies in Law
“Why go through all the trouble when we have our parents or guardians to show up for us,” he noted. Meanwhile, another ATC student, Fay Lauren Mohamad Fauzi, 19, attended the forum in the hopes of gaining more exposure on Malaysian politics and learning more about general issues after realising that most of her peers do not care about politics.
“Because of social media, I can tell that most of my classmates are aware of what is going on in the country and around the world, but they just do not care because some of them think that it is boring and does not affect their lives,” she told TMR.
