Advertisement

More teens interested in GE

Some Singapore teens are getting caught up in the wave of interest in the General Election. (Getty Images)
Some Singapore teens are getting caught up in the wave of interest in the General Election. (Getty Images)

Are students in Singapore more excited over the school holiday on 9 May than the Polling Day on 7 May? And are they avoiding the General Elections (GE) hype because of the upcoming mid-year examinations?

Although they are not allowed to vote, the presence of teens at election rallies and their active political discussions on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter seem to suggest that many of them are engaged in this year's GE, dispelling the conventional notion that teens are apathetic when it comes to politics.

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook: "Why are teenagers more concerned (with) the General Elections compared to the adults who will be the only ones voting? This is so strange!"

Another friend of mine said on Twitter: "Yes I confess, I was watching the rallies while studying globalisation." He was so engrossed in the rallies that it posed a distraction to his social studies test preparation.

And the teens are expressing interest in opposition parties more than before. Foursquare check-ins to and photos taken at Workers' Party rallies dominate my Facebook timeline.

Gone are the days that Singaporeans get involved in politics in their mid-twenties. Even 13-year-olds today know who are the candidates in their GRCs, and some of these youths even convey their thoughts about politics online. I believe the Internet -- the living space of the youth -- has played a significant role in bringing teens closer to the GE, and to the extent of influencing their perception of certain political parties.

Over the years, I had no qualms over PAP's governance of Singapore, and I thought they were doing a perfectly fine job. Singapore was the fastest growing economy in the world with a growth rate of 17.9 percent for the first half of 2010, and the opening of the two casinos at Marina Bay and Sentosa significantly boosted tourism dollars.

Socially, my relationship with the People's Republic of China and ASEAN scholars in my secondary school class has always been superb despite intense competition in studies.

Earlier this year, I was at Aljunied Town Council at Hougang Central for an interview with Cynthia Phua, a minister from the Aljunied group representation constituency (GRC). Before the interview, I stood beside her as she entertained concerns raised by residents. It was my first time attending a meet-the-people session, and I was so impressed by the way she helped the needy citizens that I was even determined to become a volunteer.

I sat for my 'O' level social studies paper last November, and what I have learnt in the two-year syllabus were the importance of racial harmony and how successful our government policies are. "Our government provides affordable and quality healthcare, and the objective of HDB is to provide affordable housing" was and is still the mantra towards scoring an 'A1' for social studies.

But all these changed when I started writing for Yahoo! last December. As the elections drew closer, reports on the respective political parties began surfacing. While I do read the newspapers on a daily basis, it failed to paint a clear picture of the problems faced by a typical Singaporean adult. Moreover, I am not at the age where housing and the increasing cost of living are of paramount concern.

Instead, it was Yahoo! News that deepened my shallow judgement of the government. I was appalled when most of the comments posted highlighted the unhappiness over exorbitant HDB housing prices, overpopulation of foreigners in our society and Ministers' high pay.

The Internet is indeed a double-edge sword. While the PAP has been trying to tap on social networking sites to garner support from young voters and teens, the party's plan could backfire because of the nature of opinions voiced out by unsatisfied netizens.

Like my fellow peers, we are easily influenced from what we read on the Internet -- forums, social networking sites, and even political blogs such as The Online Citizen and Temasek Review. What exacerbates the issue is that we tend to follow the crowd.

Most of us will be voting in the GE after this, and our current understanding of the political scene lays the foundation to which political party we will vote for five years later.

But undoubtedly, there are still a handful of teens who are clueless about the elections. 15-year-old student Cheryl Ang posted on Twitter: "Why is the opposition party called that? Is it just a party made to oppose PAP? What are those parties?! I've no idea about the elections."

The writer is a 17-year-old technology blogger who loves social media and gadgets. He is also Singapore's No. 1 Twitter user with 192,000 followers.

Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

This article is published by Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte. Ltd., 60 Anson Road #13-01 Mapletree Anson, Singapore, 079914.