These youth activists behind Undi18 who transformed Malaysia’s democracy

Qyira Yusri and Tharma Pillai are behind Undi18, the movement that reduced Malaysia’s voting age and allowed its youths to help shape their country’s future. They discuss championing democracy and creating systemic change in the latest episode of our Crazy Smart Asia podcast

Malaysian youth movement Undi18 made history in 2019 when it successfully convinced the country’s government to lower the country’s voting age from 21 to 18.

Its co-founders, Qyira Yusri and Tharma Pillai, started the movement after meeting each other as students in the United States. Inspired by how active the youths overseas would be in their local politics, they set out to start a platform to give more young Malaysians a voice and a stake in their country’s future.

Reducing the voting age took five years to implement. With the new law, Undi18 helped to add about eight million new voters to the electoral roll, with 1.2 million of the total aged between 18 and 20.

In the latest episode of our Crazy Smart Asia podcast, Qyira and Tharma discuss their challenges, successes and vision for the future of Malaysia and its young people. Here are a few excerpts from the episode. To listen to the full episode, click the audio player below or subscribe via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode highlights

On the ‘aha’ moment

Tharma Pillai (TP): I thought if we replicated this back in Malaysia, you essentially force a democratic awakening amongst millions of young Malaysians throughout the country when they’re in university—the best place for them to learn.

Qyira Yusri (QY): I think the best part is because we are young people, the question of ‘why not’ was always there. We are inspired, we see, and we want to respond to what’s happening in the world. But also the main question was, ‘Why not do it now? Why not us?’ And that’s why we started, that’s when we started the campaign.

On starting a viral petition

QY: It wasn’t just a basic social media campaign. It was a very intentional demand to the government, backed up by youth leaders who had the mandate of their organisations or of the people they were representing.

TP: The strategy from the start was to build connections and build allies and champions locally with key political leaders.

On facing and overcoming major obstacles

QY: There’s no book or class you can take to learn how to build a grassroots school, NGO or a movement. So we had a lot of painful lessons along the way. I think that we had to make mistakes and learn from them. When you open up your life and your opinions, it also opens up space for people to come at you.

On changing the law

QY: I was just looking at Tharma and I was like, This is happening. Like this is for real. We are here today with about 80 students who are all in high school and they were watching and we were like.... I think surreal is an understatement. I was shocked. I was touched. I was terrified. What does it mean for Malaysia? What does it mean for our politics? We knew that with the amendment, we would see an increase of at least 5 to 7 million new voters, depending on when elections were.

On the unexpected journey that transformed democracy

TP: I think what’s unexpected is the idea that two young students—two nobodies—can essentially transform a country’s democracy. I think that idealism is something that more people should learn from and should have that self-belief that hey, I can make change happen too. It’s to dare to dream.

On their secrets to success

QY: Empathy is what gets us past the finish line because we’re not just chasing targets or chasing numbers.

TP: Fundamentally, if you do things right, if you work hard and make the right strategy, you are increasing your surface area for that lightning strike of luck to happen. If you work hard, you cover all your bases. You speak to everyone, you build coalitions, and you build a genuine movement. For us, we built a youth movement for change. Then odds are, when luck strikes, we are in the right place, the right position to benefit from it.

Quotes are edited for clarity and brevity.

Listen to the episode and subscribe using your preferred podcast platform on our Crazy Smart Asia podcast page.

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Topics

Undi 18 Democracy Malaysia Voting Rights Qyira Yusri Tharma Pillai Crazy Smart Asia Podcast

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The two millennial ‘nobodies’ who helped Malaysia get its democratic awakening