Asia's Youth and Party Politics

By Ronald Meinardus

As elections approach, politicians remember the importance of being in good terms with the youth. Young people are easily motivated and inexpensive workers in political campaigns. The young generation also constitutes a sizeable electoral constituency. "Win the votes of the under 30-year-olds, and victory is on your side," says a politician in the Philippines, as he prepares to run for office in the country's general elections next May.

In electoral contests throughout the world, a youthful image has become a strategic imperative. The preferences of the young generation play an increasingly important role in the laboratories of political campaign managers. At the same time, the interests of the youth often only play a secondary role in the world of Realpolitik. Young people frequently complain that they are not consulted in political decision making, that their concerns are not taken seriously by the elder generation. A feeling of being locked out of political processes fosters political apathy and disenchantment. This explains why in many democracies young people keep away from political parties and have abandoned elections in droves. This is a universal phenomenon, which is by no means specific to Asia.

Basically, there exist two types of young people. In all parts of the world, we find youngsters with a keen interest in political affairs, and another group with practically no political interest at all. From a democratic vantage point, it is unfortunate that the latter tends to be in the majority in most societies.

While political apathy among the young generation is a global phenomenon, differences regarding the degree and the quality of political youth activism exist in various parts of the world. This again became apparent at a recent international youth conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia entitled, "The Youth in Democratic Transitions. Prospects for Young Liberals in Asia." The event brought together young political leaders from Asia and Europe. Unlike the situation in most Asian countries, partisan youth politics in Europe is serious political business. In Europe, most -- if not all -- political parties have well-organized youth branches with considerable political influence, and democratically elected youth leaders participate in the party leadership, thereby assuring that issues relevant to the young generation receive attention.

With few exceptions, this form of institutionalized party youth politics does not exist in Asia. In general, political parties in this part of the world are much weaker institutionally than their counterparts in Europe. Indirectly, the feeble role of political parties in most Asian countries also affects the role that young people can play in them. As young people tend to be more idealistic and principled than their parents' generation, they are put off by political parties that in many cases are mere voting clubs void of political consistency and ideological principles.

A further constraint to youth engagement in Asian party politics is culture. Unlike Europe, where respect for the older generation was taken over by the adoration for all things youthful, seniority continues to be an important principle of social life in most Asian countries. "In our tradition, we value the opinions of the old people more than the young," said a participant from Cambodia at the conference in Phnom Penh. "Children have ears not mouths," a delegate from Taiwan seconded this Confucian-inspired view by quoting a Chinese proverb.

What holds true for most East Asian countries, however, may not be generalized. In the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, a group of young congressmen -- the youngest just 28 years old -- recently caused a major political crisis when they launched a parliamentary motion to impeach the Chief Justice. After serious political turbulences the crisis ended with a political defeat of the youngsters. Unlike their counterparts in Europe, the political neophytes of the Philippines often don't owe their political mandates to parties but to their family backgrounds. In this country, young political leaders usually get elected because they are the sons or daughters of prominent parents with well-sounding names. For all practical purposes, political dynasties are more effective (and also more powerful) than the embryonic political parties.

In the recent political imbroglio in the Philippines, the political Young Turks of the opposition acted as mouthpieces of conservative vested interests (aimed at getting rid of an activist Chief Justice for whom the fight against graft and corruption is a declared priority). Unlike this specific Philippine case, young people in general tend to have more progressive and more liberal views than the older generation. "Youthfulness normally expresses itself in a type of iconoclasm, or a desire to bring in new through the ashes of the old", writes Philippines columnist Conrado de Quiros.

The desire for change is the driving forces of all political and social transitions. Everywhere in the world, young people have stood and continue to stand at the forefront of the struggle for democracy and against authoritarian rule. "Those who look forward usually want change," explains Sam Rainsy, the leader of the biggest opposition party in Cambodia.

With the major part of their lives lying ahead of them, young people naturally aspire for changes that may lead to a better future for them and their families. Still, in most nations only a minority of young people perceive political parties as a suitable vehicle to promote these aspirations. To make political parties more attractive for the young generation, therefore, remains one of the main challenges of the political establishment in Asia and beyond.

Dr. Ronald Meinardus was the former Resident Representative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in the Philippines and will leave Manila late September for a new posting in the Middle East. He writes a blog at www.myliberaltimes.com