Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – It’s members of the United States Congress one day, a Hollywood star or wealthy donors the next, all carrying the same message to President Joe Biden – who want the 81-year-old to step aside from the 2024 presidential race.
Polls show that many American voters are concerned about Biden’s advanced age and performance. Against him is Donald Trump, 78 years old, a little younger, who survived an assassination attempt last week.
But age is not a problem for Malaysia, in Southeast Asia, which has seen its top politicians rise to power with popular support, despite their very old age.
The clearest examples are Mahathir Mohamad, who became the country’s seventh prime minister at the age of 92 in 2018, and the current one, Anwar Ibrahim – Malaysia’s 10th prime minister, who took office at around 70 years in 2022.
Malaysian voters who spoke to Al Jazeera said Mahathir and Anwar’s policies were more important than their age as the country went to the polls.
“I considered their age, Mahathir in particular, as he was already in his 90s,” a 35-year-old executive – who went by the name Layla Subra – told Al Jazeera.
“But in their case, they both gave the impression of being quite sharp and focused, despite their age. Therefore, it did not strongly influence my voting decisions,” Subra said.
Mahathir – who previously served as Prime Minister of Malaysia for a total of 22 years, from 1981 to 2003 – earned a place in the Guinness World Records as the oldest serving cousin minister when he was re-elected in 2018 at 92 years and 141 days.
Although the official retirement age is 60 in Malaysia – a country of 34 million people where the average age is just over 30 – old age is rarely seen as a factor for voters who have long become accustomed to the idea of older legislators.
In China, age is also not seen as an impediment in politics.
Xi Jinping, who is now 71, secured his third five-year term as president last year, while the country’s then supreme leader, Deng Xiaoping, was 87 when he undertook his famous “trip to the south” in 1992. aiming at economic reform after stagnation in the country. the consequences of the military repression of the Tiananmen protests in 1989.
Viewed as his last large-scale political initiative, Deng’s visit to key southern economic zones affirmed China’s commitment to free market liberalization and opening the Chinese economy to trade.
Never too old for Malaysian politics
It is not uncommon to see politicians contest elections to defend seats they have occupied for decades in the country’s parliamentary system.
The oldest member of Malaysia’s parliament today is Fong Kui Lun, 77, of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), who has held the position since 1999.
Although some voters told Al Jazeera they would like to see younger people on electoral lists, they were more concerned about the politics of the time than the candidate’s age.
“My priority would be whoever has a better plan, not necessarily age,” said office manager Shaun Ho, 40.
“An older leader with a better plan would still be preferable to a younger leader who still follows the status quo,” Shaun said.
In the run-up to the 2018 elections, Mahathir campaigned on a strong anti-corruption message against his former protégé Najib Razak, who was later convicted for his role in the 1MDB financial scandal. Najib, the country’s sixth prime minister, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, although his sentence was halved earlier this year by the country’s pardons board.
Malaysians do not directly choose their heads of government; instead, they vote for candidates in their areas of residence, traditionally along party lines.
“Often it doesn’t matter who the member of parliament is, because we basically vote for the party we want in power because of their policies,” said businessman Nicholas Chin, 40.
“We are all condemned to vote strategically. In other words, I will vote for the candidate who I think will cause the least damage,” said Chin.
Malaysia has had 10 prime ministers since its independence from British colonial rule in 1957, with its first four elected leaders aged between 40 and 50.
But all prime ministers shared similar characteristics. They were all men, Muslims of faith, and at one point were or had been part of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which was once the largest political party in the country.
Health, not age, is the factor
Even at an advanced age, Mahathir, 99, and Anwar, 76, in recent times appeared to have largely maintained their respective physical and mental health.
A doctor when he entered politics in the late 1950s, Mahathir told the AFP news agency in 2020 that he kept fit using a treadmill and an exercise bike, with a disciplined diet in tow.
In February last year, Anwar said in a social media post that he had undergone a medical examination and that doctors had given him a clean bill of health.
This was despite a serious spinal injury and spending nearly a decade in prison after being arrested twice on sodomy charges, which were widely seen as politically motivated. His first conviction was overturned and he received a pardon for the second.
In 2022, Mahathir suffered his worst political defeat in national elections, which followed after he resigned as prime minister two years earlier and later formed a new party focusing on ethnic Malay voters.
Although he faces a series of recent health problems and turns 99 earlier this month, Mahathir continues to write public opinions on politics. Currently hospitalized again for medical treatment, he could not be reached by Al Jazeera for comment.
Bridget Welsh, a political analyst at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia, said that while a candidate’s age is important to some voters, what matters more is the candidate’s competence and track record.
“In Mahathir’s case, his health didn’t seem to be an issue, but what came later was the perspective of ideas,” Welsh said.
“Age only tells part of the story… In the case of Joe Biden, what matters is his health,” she said.
Calls for Biden to step aside from the presidential race have increased within his Democratic Party following his testing positive for COVID-19 last week, in addition to his numerous public gaffes over the years.
In one recent instance, Biden referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he has struggled to find the right words in other public appearances.
After his disastrous public television debate against Trump, which left Democrats in a panic, more voices are questioning whether Biden should continue in the race, while Trump has been criticized for his diatribes against minorities and migrants.
“I think the difference between our election and the US election is that Biden and Trump are physically and mentally incapacitated,” said Malaysian writer and actress Elza Irdalynna, 37.
In the deeply polarized U.S. climate, political personalities are more important than policies to the “average American” voter, Elza said.
“That’s why they need a popular figure to lead the race, because that’s what’s visible,” she said.
“Even though they have better, younger candidates who deserve these seats,” she added.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
