The world is a strange place right now. The age of the Internet has brought with it a politically active class of youth that is beginning to disrupt the economic and political status quo established with the end of the Cold War. This status quo is defined by its conservative bent and capitalistic values, which the youth regard as extraneous to the processes that keep the world turning.

In Canada, Justin Trudeau has taken the country by storm at the age of 44, becoming the youngest Prime Minister in his country’s history. Hong Kong twisted and turned as the youth came out in numbers to protest against the establishment’s tendency to kowtow to Beijing. In the Ukraine, a revolution was sparked by youth protests against the then president, Viktor Yanukovych. The United States is seeing an ideological generational war play out in the campaign for the Democratic presidential candidacy between Hillary Clinton and the self-described socialist Bernie Sanders, a septuagenarian who is riding on a wave of youth enthusiasm.

What we are seeing is a generational divide in terms of values and ideology. Today’s youth have grown up in a world defined by economic crises and the explosion of information. Thus they tend to be well informed and educated, if education could be defined as possession of information. But they are idealistic and feel that their efforts and ideas are being ignored, which is one of the biggest problems facing us today.

So how does all this relate to us Malaysians? Well, here’s some food for thought: the youth will make up nearly half the population by 2020. This means that there could be an ideological shift in the next decade or so, and the truth is that no one is ready for it. The coming of the youth into their own will bring about a redefinition of values and ideologies, and if the government fails to account for this, it stands to face the problem of having to deal with an ideological clash between generations.

Every significant revolution in the past decade, cultural or otherwise, has begun with a student movement or, essentially, a youth movement deciding that the way things are being run does not reflect the values that they have been taught by the same generation that is resisting the realization of those values.

We are continually losing faith in our leaders because what they teach and what they do are two different things. We find it harder to believe in capitalism and, sometimes, even in democracy because while there is much wrong in what we see and hear, we are told that such are the realities of life, and the people telling us this are the same people who taught us about wrong and right. When one cannot reconcile what one was taught with what one is shown, then there’s a breakdown of trust.

Malaysia’s youth lack one crucial element: a unified platform to represent our voices as a legitimate part of the democratic process. Whether it be a political organisation or an amorphous movement, the youth need to find a platform from which to express their aspirations.

The next existential crisis the human race will face will come as a result of the generational divide. This is the dilemma that we should be talking about the world over.