#9: Internet and Politics

I'm sure most Singaporeans would be familiar with the new rendition of "Home", originally performed by home grown singer Kit Chan. This new version encompasses the voices of 39 local singers, and to me, feels like one of those pre-election strategies/gimmicks.

While watching this on television for the first time, I was indeed overwhelmed with emotion. This song, reminded me of the value of my citizenship in this country; and being located in a good geographical location, free from natural disasters, made me grateful to be a part of Singapore as it is certainly a clean, green and relatively safe country.

I'm sure this song was released in a timely fashion, in hopes to remind us of our heritage and to rekindle feelings of loyalty and belongingness to this country.. to keep the order of our country the way it is (if you know what I mean).  Singapore, though steeped in Asian values, has also modernized to a great extent through the years. Our culture, to me, is more of a mish mash of Western and Asian influences, and so, does not have a distinct or dominant culture. Although greatly moved by the essence of this song, there was a pressing thought at the back of my mind which said "Do we only appreciate our country when such songs tug on our heartstrings?"

So if you'd ask me if Singaporean youths are generally apathetic towards politics, I would agree and disagree. Firstly I agree because of the issue of complacency- because youths are generally too caught up with their self-identities to be concerned with politics. Another reason is because, I feel that Singaporean youths aren't provided much information about politics for them to even be concerned with it in the first place. We have no opportunities to voice our thoughts about the government, and in this technology savvy world, even fewer opportunities to express our opinions on the Internet. "Big brother is watching", and he certainly is. We are constantly under surveillance and anything we publish that reflects negatively about our country is brought to attention, again in a negative light, via our newspapers- How many people have been embarrassed, made to pay penalties, or worse still, locked behind bars because of a negative comment made about the government or a certain race in our country? In a highly regimented society, it is no wonder youths are apathetic about politics. The bottomline is, we have better things to care about if we cannot express our thoughts freely.

My disagreeing point would describe apathetic as a word used too strongly in this context as some youths may very well be just... shy. I've recently found out that it is possible to thumb a text message to communicate with your MP, but I feel that speaking face to face would be a better approach as it gives both parties an opportunity to understand each other better. Politicians should spend time talking to their citizens year round, and not just doing so near elections.