Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus drew attention to the enormous potential of the countries youthful population at the recently concluded annual conference of the Bangladesh Administrative Service Association. In many other recent occasions, Professor Yunus articulated the need to recognise the potential of our youth.
To emphasise the urgency for unleashing the latent power of the youth, Professor Yunus suggested that the minimum voter age should be 17 years. Speaking as the Chief Guest in December at the Forum for Bangladesh Studies, he said, “To give their (youth) opinion on their own future, I think the voting age for them should be fixed at 17 years”
However, unfortunately, Professor Yunus’ suggestion received mixed reactions from the political quarters of the country. Besides smelling political foul plays, some doubted the cognition maturity at 17.
“Old enough to fight, old enough to vote”
This slogan was born soon after the US Congress approved lowering the minimum draft age to 18 on 11 November, 1942 to boost US troop numbers. But it took nearly 30 years in the US to pass legislations lowering voting age at the national level to 18 years in 1971.
Reflecting on the historic moment when the Congress passed the bill, Senator Jennings Randolph who first proposed to lower the voting age three decades ago (as a West Virginia congressman), said:
“I believe that our young people possess a great social conscience, are perplexed by the injustices which exist in the world and are anxious to rectify these ills.”
Can we not say the same about the youths of Bangladesh? Have they not been at the forefront of every movement and struggle against injustices in this country, including the recent revolution against the tyrannical and corrupt regime of Sheikh Hasina?
Do not the letters our martyred children wrote to their parents, or the slogans that our youths created, or the graffities that they wrote on the walls, or the strategies the co-ordinator used reflect their cognitive maturity?
Do they not indicate our youths’ great social conscience; their perplexities at the injustices in the world and their anxiousness to rectify these ills and create a ‘new Bangladesh’ based on justice, equality and freedom?
The recruitment age into our armed forces (army, navy and air-force) varies between 16 and 18 years. Using the US analogy, if they are old enough to fight at 17 or 18, why can’t they be old enough to vote?
The minimum age for obtaining an ordinary driving licence in Bangladesh is 18. If one can navigate through our chaotic traffic maze, why can’t she/he make an informed choice about the plethora of candidates seeking votes?
If our youths are capable of making conscious decision at 17 or 18 in the campus elections, why their cognitive maturity be doubted for the national or local elections?
What does research say about cognitive maturity?
Psychologists are in general agreement: 16-year-olds are as good, cognitively, as 20-year-olds, 40-year-olds, or anyone else older than them at processing the information necessary for voting.
As a leading Psychologist, Laurence Steinberg, said, “[a]dolescents may make bad choices [in voting], but statistically speaking, they won’t make them any more often than adults.”
Thus, nothing dramatic happens, from a psychological or cognitive standpoint when someone turns 16 or 18. However, something magical does occur when they reach 16 or 18; they gain the cognitive capabilities to engage in measured and reasoned decision-making.
This is probably the reason why we allow 18-year-olds to drive, consent to marry or live independently; that is, we already treat these young people like “adults”.
So, there is little reason why we should not also empower our young adult with the right to vote.
Voting age around the world
Ages for voting and political participation were progressively lowered as the franchise was extended to women, and other groups. A first wave of lowering the voting age to 16 occurred in the second half of the 20th century in Latin America, and a second wave started in the early 2000s, mainly in European countries.
UNICEF reports that in most countries and territories (around 90%) in the world, the voting age is 18 in at least local elections. These include developing countries like Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Indonesia, Nicaragua Nigeria, and least developed countries (LDCs), such as Tanzania and Timor-Leste.
In neighbouring Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the voting age is 18. By what logic can we disenfranchise our youths?
Cannot betray the spirit of the July revolution
Denying our youths their right to choose who should lead them and have a say in the matters that affect their lives and aspirations will be tantamount to betraying the spirit of the July revolution.
Professor Yunus has summarised the spirit of the July revolution:
“Our young generation has impressed upon the people their aspirations for a revolutionary change, restoration of all institutions of the state to ensure democracy and human rights through a meaningful reform.”
The benefits of lowering the voting age are myriad. Lowering the voting age will:
- likely increase voter turnout;
- give young people a political voice;
- force politicians to pay greater attention to the views and needs of the youths;
- create a larger pool of talented and energetic young leaders
In short, lowering voting age will create a “trickle up” effect on civic participation, which contributes to consolidation of democracy and enhancement of leadership quality.
If the right to vote is our most precious, fundamental right, then we should extend it to anyone who is competent enough to make democratic decisions and has a sufficient, actual stake in the outcome.
Anis (Anisuzzaman) Chowdhury, an alumnus of Jahangirnar University and University of Manitoba, is a macro-development economist with close to 100 publications in international journals and two dozen books, including Moulana Bhashani: Leader of the Toiling Masses and Moulana Bhashani: his Creed and Politics. Currently an adjunct professor, he was a professor of economics (2001-2008), Western Sydney University. He served as Director of Economic and Statistics Divisions of UN-ESCAP (Bangkok, 2012-2015) and retired from the UN Headquarters (New York) in 2016 after serving as Chief in the Financing for Development Office. He regularly writes opinion pieces on global socio-economic-political issues. He serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals.
