By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Nov 18: The youth should enjoy their lives, experience whirlwind courtships, build a loving family, and develop stable careers before they consider entering local politics, opines Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
The Asajaya incumbent said, in his personal opinion, the youth ought to live their lives to the fullest before committing themselves to politics especially when 18-year-olds are now legally permitted to contest as candidates.
Seeing adolescence as the golden age for passion, love and career, he stood by his belief that youths are to be discouraged from becoming political figures at such a tender age.
“Not to say that I totally disagree, but my personal opinion is that I don’t really encourage or recommend it.
“Because let’s enjoy our lives. When you’re still young, after you graduate from university or college, enjoy your life first.
“Have courtship, fall in love and get married, then you build up your career, have children, then only you join politics as a candidate,” he said, adding that the suitable age range to become a politician is from 39 to 41.
While certain parties might disagree, Abdul Karim said that was his two cents.
“That’s how I feel personally. I still stick to that opinion, because I think it takes a while for a person to acquire wisdom,” he said during a press conference on Kuching Creative City of Gastronomy at Bangunan Baitulmakmur here today.
With regard to Undi18, however, he was fully supportive of the idea that voting age be lowered to 18-years-old as he viewed it as the age of majority.
He also said 18-year-olds and above can legally drive and own land, so there was no reason for those aged 18 to 20 to be devoid of voting rights before Undi18.
Reiterating his support for both Undi18 and the lowering of the legal age for election candidates to 18 despite personal views, Abdul Karim urged the public not to take his words out of context and claimed he disapproved of the new policies. — DayakDaily
