Sarawak retains youth age limit at 40 to support participation, programmes, says Abd Karim

KUCHING (March 6): Sarawak continues to recognise individuals aged up to 40 as youths, maintaining its own definition despite the federal government lowering the national youth age limit to below 30.

Sarawak Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the state has chosen to retain the higher age threshold, believing the broader definition better reflects youth participation and demographic realities in the state.

“That is why when the age limit is lowered so quickly, the number of youths in Malaysia will naturally decrease,” he told a press conference here.

His remarks followed a statement in the Dewan Negara by Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Mordi Bimol, who revealed that membership in youth societies nationwide had dropped by 45 per cent to 544,940 from 991,729 following the enforcement of the new youth age definition.

Mordi explained the sharp decline occurred because individuals aged between 30 and 40 are no longer categorised as youths under the Youth Societies and Youth Development (Amendment) Act 2019, which came into force on Jan 1.

The amendment defines youth as those aged between 15 to below 30, while leaders of youth organisations must be aged between 18 and below 30, with a maximum tenure of four years.

Commenting on the development, Abdul Karim said narrowing the age bracket would inevitably reduce the overall youth population reflected in official statistics.

“Partly because they moved the youth age from 40 to 35, and now they want to reduce it further to 30. If that happens, naturally the numbers will continue to decline,” he said.

However, he stressed that Sarawak has adopted a different approach by retaining the youth age limit at 40.

“In Sarawak, we do it our way. Our youth is still considered up to 40 years old,” he said.

According to him, a smaller youth demographic could also affect the scale of assistance and programmes provided for youths.

“Any contributions or assistance that ministries plan to provide for youths could also be reduced when the numbers appear smaller,” he added.