In the past few days, an interesting question is whether Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman is too young to become Minister, as Syed Saddiq was appointed the Minister for Youth and Sports at the age of 25.
I think this is a non-question as over half of the Malaysian population are below 30 years of age and there is no strong reason why the Minister for Youth and Sports should not come from this age group.
This may be the first time that we have such a young Minister helming the Youth Ministry, and Yeo Bee Yin, the DAP MP for Bakri and Minister of Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment, at 35, is the second youngest in the Pakatan Harapan Cabinet.
But Syed Saddiq is not the youngest Minister in the world, as Shamma Al Mazrui became the world’s youngest government Minister in the world when she was appointed United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister for Youth Affairs at the age of 22 in February 2016.
She was appointed into the Cabinet by UAE Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum after he tweeted asking the UAE’s universities to nominate a young person for the role.
A more interesting and relevant question is when will a Malaysian below 40 years become the Prime Minister of Malaysia as some 70 per cent of Malaysians belong to this age group.
At present, the Prime Minister of New Zealand is 37-year-old Jacinda Arden, the Prime Minister of Ireland is 38 year-old Leo Varadkar and the President of
France is 39-year-old Emmnuel Macron.
The age-group breakdown of the first 26-strong Pakatan Harapan Cabinet is as follows:
Over 90 – 1
70 > 1
60 > 9
50 > 9
40 > 4
30 > 1
20 > 1
The estimates for the various demographics in Malaysia is as follows:
0-14 years: 27.83%;
15-24 years: 16.81%;
25-54 years: 41%;
55-64 years: 8.27%;
65 years and over: 6.1%.
(Media Statement in Gelang Patah on Friday, 6th July 2018)
