Chided at youth event, Saddiq defends lowering age limit for youth organisations

Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has defended his move to cap the age of youths at 30, stressing that it had been done following extensive consultation with stakeholders.

During the Malaysian Youth Council’s (MYC) annual conference in Cheras this morning, council president Jufitri Joha lamented that the organisation had not been included enough in discussions before the move was finalised.

He also had concerns that the age limit made it hard for youth organisations to sustain its grassroots members.

In response, the minister explained that Youth Societies and Youth Development (Amendment) Bill 2019 was only tabled in the Dewan Rakyat following many discussions with youth groups, including the MYC.

Furthermore, the move included an ample 20-year transition period.

“We did not immediately lower the age limit to 30 (from 40). After discussing with the top leadership (of the ministry) we decided to first transition from age 40 to 35, and then from age 35 to 30.

“And it is not going to be done immediately within one year, but it will take more than 20 years.

“The age 40 to 35 transition will only begin at the end of 2021,” he said, adding that further delays were possible depending on when an organisation’s AGM was held.

Syed Saddiq also explained that the amendment was first proposed eight years ago but never materialised under the previous BN government despite full support from the ministry.

“This started in 2011 and was decided and agreed to by everyone (in the ministry) in 2016. But then it was handed to a new minister, so it is not like I did it all of a sudden or drastically,” the minister said.

Need longer transition period

Earlier during his opening speech, Jufitri said he regretted how the MYC had been “denied the right” of being consulted thoroughly about the amendment.

‘The MYC should have been invited to Parliament to support the bill,” he said.

While he personally supported the new age cap, Jufitri said many grassroots youth leaders did not. He thus opined that the cap ought to have been voluntary to accommodate “late bloomers”.

“The grassroots leaders came to me and asked to tell the minister that they can’t even find five people to join their initiatives.

“[...] We would like a longer transition period so we can address the difficulty of finding the next generation of leaders in the villages,” he said. 

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