Last Tuesday I felt enriched with the experience and joy of sharing a wonderful morning in a face-to-face debate with some of our young people on various current topics.  \It was one of those infrequent instances when our young people had their say in Parliament – where their representatives are usually the legislators and decision-makers. The extremely busy sitting of the Young People’s Parliament was undoubtedly a very welcome opportunity to savour the creative force, loaded with fresh and innovative proposals, of those who will potentially take over our seats in the years to come.

For me personally it was actually a very refreshing opportunity, away from the usual crowd of older people and their carers and the experts in the field of the elderly and people with disabilities. For a few hours, together with my colleagues, I was surrounded by a new dynamic generation on the doorstep of adulthood, brimming with enthusiasm to present their immediate solutions to problems we have almost learnt to live with for many years. All of us parliamentarians could appreciate their diligent presentations and the way they were organised in different parties, by the name of what each stands for. Their performance on Tuesday was proof enough of the hard preparatory work done over the past months, including the drafting and amending of motions that were to be tabled, giving room for lobbying and debate, in full respect for the Standing Orders of Parliament.

It brought back memories of my years at the Junior Lyceum, Sixth Form and then university, my early activities in the political arena and my initiation as a young parliamentarian, when I had to quickly adapt to the parliamentary jargon, procedures and protocols. For an instant I could recall the time when, in 2003, I was (and still am) the first female to be elected from Gozo for the Labour Party and immediately given the task of spokesperson for young people.

Listening to the young people in the House on Tuesday brought flashbacks of when I closely followed the Rights4U programmes for adolescents at Manresa House in Gozo. I used to wonder then what course in life those grown-up children would take in a few years time. Having specialised in family law after graduating, I was deeply interested then to perceive the real family situations that would – one way or another – affect those young people in their personal and social development.

I had always been inspired by Aristotle’s wisdom when he said that “good habits formed in youth make all the difference in adulthood”. I remember addressing those attending the courses and stressing the need for learning in order to appreciate the benefits of teamwork and committing themselves to a healthy civic sense of duty in everything they did. 

The young people we hosted in Parliament last Tuesday gave us the opportunity to appreciate that our younger generation is genuinely working on – and factually following – those golden rules. During a morning that is usually dedicated to Cabinet meetings, I felt it was beneficial that, for once, as a Cabinet, we opted to listen to and share ideas with highly-prepared groups of young people. It showed the benefits of such participatory structures and greater trust between youths and institutions.

These are basically ideal initiatives that support youth empowerment and participation in democratic governance.

The Youth Parliament involved us in an interesting discussion on five issues they considered to be of major importance, namely equality, alternative means of transport, immigration, right to life and apathy among young people. Such occasions show how important it is for us to be well-versed and focused on various issues, apart from our indicated competences, and to be fully prepared and all-rounders in such debates.

The topic assigned to me covered alternative means of transport. Apart from endorsing most of what the young people had to say about the current traffic situation, I felt obliged to stress the additional difficulties created for us Gozitans due to our double insularity. We dealt with the various types of transport used over the years and touched on more recent alternative proposals. I could appreciate the fact that our young representatives are extremely concerned about the environmental impact of any method of transport one can think of. Although the whole issue cannot be simply taken as an occasional electoral promise on its own, this government has shown its commitment with ongoing studies into technical, geological, environmental and financial aspects. 

Tuesday’s sitting was, in fact, an opportunity for young people to come up with suggestions and engage in issues of governance with a closer appraisal of the decision-making processes. In so doing, it is necessary to have a holistic outlook on all the issues and aspects involved – including the cultural context, the social norms and standards the and financial challenges – before deciding in favour of one option against another.

Very frequently, young people represent the spirit of adventure and awakening. It is a time of physical emergence, when the body attains the vigour and good health that may sometimes ignore the caution of temperance. Youth is a period of timelessness when the horizons of age seem too distant to be noticed. This I could clearly perceive while listening to the young people’s delivery of solutions or alternative ways of tackling today’s problems. From my perspective as Parliamentary Secretary for Active Ageing, I could better understand that, after all, ageing is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength.

Indeed, participation is a fundamental democratic right. It should be an end in and of itself to include and welcome more political participation by young people. For the most part, this needs to be geared towards achieving levels relative to those of the rest of the population. Undoubtedly, the lowering of the voting age is in itself a bold step in this direction. However, much more interest and commitment, together with analysing and evaluating skills, are required before one could feel the pride of holding a voting document. Last week’s youth event in Parliament can easily be evaluated as evidence that many of our younger generation deserve the pride of that right. Young people often come up with brilliant ideas which then need the input of further knowledge and experience from other sectors of society to help mature and pursue them.

My daily duties bring me closer to the elderly and through them a huge amount of wisdom and experience – together with untold stories of challenges faced and overcome by people with disabilities. This does not deter me from keeping in mind, however, that young people between the ages of 15 and 25 constitute a fifth of the world’s population.

Here again, Aristotle comes to mind with his axiom that “youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope”. The great thinker might have been right, but after last Tuesday’s Youth Parliament, I would dare to amend this and say that youth can be easily appreciated because it is quick to hope! Well done, young ladies and gentlemen; keep it up!

 

Dr Caruana is the Parliamentary Secretary for the Rights of People with Disability and Active Ageing