PARENTAL INFLUENCE: Mr Jonathan Chen (together with his schoolmates ? clockwise from Mr Chen ? Ng Ai Ling, 24, Merlyn Tan, 19, Leong Hwee Ying, 19, Irene Hoi, 19, and Sim Kai Ting, 19) will be going to Batam to conduct free eye screenings in October. He credits his mother for his altruistic leanings. — ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG
CONVENTIONAL wisdom has young people pretty much figured out. A YouTubing flash mob of Twittering, texting, shopaholic Facebookers; all iPod and no ideology.
And when it comes to questions of politics and social concerns? Well, call them the ‘Why me? Generation’.
Trouble is, conventional wisdom might have the big picture right (sort of) but it’s missing the myriad of smaller ones, those that show a generation of young Singaporeans becoming more involved, more confident of asserting themselves in the community – and less inclined to expect the Government to solve every problem in society.
Picture the scene in the chambers of Old Parliament House two weeks ago when 36 young people – none older than 25 – debated sustainable development solutions in a mock parliament. The event was organised by Mr Wilson Ang, 28, president of the environmental social enterprise ECO Singapore, as a way to get young people thinking critically about issues and the policies to deal with them.
Or picture the way young members of advocacy group the Association of Women for Action and Research stepped in to update the website, mobilise volunteers and carry out other duties for the extraordinary general meeting that overturned what many had called a leadership coup in April.
Picture, too, the way more than 2,000 Republic Polytechnic students petitioned their administration to shut down the school after a number of pupils became infected with the H1N1 virus in June.
And three 20-somethings took a stand in July, demanding that the Penal Code criminalise marital rape.
They launched an online petition called the ‘No To Rape’ campaign, which generated widespread discussion.
These are four snapshots that, together, make a potent case for dispelling the conventional wisdom – the stereotype that today’s youth are self-centred and apathetic.
Our young citizens are starting interest groups, non-profit, business and social enterprises in support of issues to tackle anything from alleviating poverty to giving delinquents a second chance.
There are plenty of factors pushing and pulling them into action. Some of them are galvanised by personal experiences, others because they have their eyes and ears closer to the ground and can readily spot gaps where problems fester.
And in a highly globalised world, travel and new media have exposed young people to issues and social justice efforts abroad, prompting many to get involved.
Experts also suggest their activism may stem from the interest in volunteerism that the education system has tried to inculcate in students.
Since 1997, the Ministry of Education has required all primary, secondary and junior college students to perform community service as part of the Community Involvement Programme.
It appears to have effected a sea change. A 1997 National Youth Council (NYC) survey showed only 8 per cent of young Singaporeans said they wanted to ‘improve society and the world’ whereas a 2006 poll found that 45 per cent felt active volunteering was important.
Also in 2006, Mr Jeffrey Yip, now a research associate for the Centre for Creative Leadership in North Carolina, researched the origins of youth activism here and found that it was partly grounded in civic participation.
‘Through participation, young people reflect on their position on broader social issues and make choices on their roles in it,’ he says.
A Massachusetts-based Brandeis University study also found that youth who volunteer are more likely to be actively engaged in their communities as adults.
A case in point is bank officer Wong Pei Chi, who organised the No To Rape campaign. Ms Wong, 25, says the continuous exposure to social issues through school and friends led to her to start the petition.
‘For a lot of us, we have this natural sense of justice, but it’s only when we get older that we get the analytical skills to actually think about issues and how we can act upon them and engage people,’ she says.
Similarly, it was her exposure to youth issues that moved Ms Shiao-Yin Kuik, 31, to start tutoring programme School of Thought in 2002 to encourage social consciousness among youth.
For others, it was the influence of parents and other family members.
Optometry undergraduate Jonathan Chen has been conducting free eye screenings in Singapore and neighbouring countries since his second year as an optometry diploma student in 2002.
He and 14 coursemates will be leading a group of 13 Singapore Polytechnic optometry diploma students to Batam in October, where they will provide eye treatment and give away used spectacles.
Mr Chen, 24, points to his mother as the source of his altruistic leanings.
‘When someone in our church was sick, she would prepare herbal tea and soup for them, and write cards to encourage them. I think that rubbed off on me subconsciously,’ says Mr Chen, who in previous years managed to convince five friends to join him on such trips.
Others get involved after a personal crisis of some form. National University of Singapore geography undergrad Heather Chi grew passionate about food-related issues after spending a year recovering from anorexia nervosa in 2006. It took three years of extensive treatment to restore her to good health.
‘I decided to help out at a local food rations programme as a form�of self-therapy to develop a different perspective on food�through assisting those who were hungry out of no choice of their own,’ says Ms Chi, 22. She started the group Food for All in 2007 to promote collaboration among people interested in food issues and work on solutions to hunger.
She is conducting a survey with two volunteers to find out what different groups who distribute food to the needy, like the Lions Befrienders, are doing, and the areas in which they work. Findings from the survey, supported by the Central Singapore Community Development Council, will enable groups to better coordinate their efforts to feed the hungry.
Filling an obvious gap was what got others like film-maker Nicholas Chee involved in social activism. Mr Chee started the independent cinema Sinema Old School in 2007, when there was no other platform to showcase local films.
Now that his social enterprise is on its feet, with an average of 25 screenings a month drawing around 500 patrons, he is using Sinema to champion other causes.
His latest project, Films for Change, will promote local and international non-profit groups through film at a month-long festival starting on Sept 9.
Similarly, although Singapore Management University student Chiraag Bha-dana, 24, and hedge fund analyst Vivek Jamwal, 31, found several people interested in microfinancing, there was no single organisation that served as a one-stop resource or kept everyone in the loop.
Microfinancing refers to loans and other financial services to help low-income individuals get out of the poverty trap.
The duo started the Microfinance (Singapore) Society in June. It meets monthly and wants to become a registered entity by the end of the year.
‘We want to raise awareness of microfinance in Singapore, grow and build resources for it, and support related initiatives here,’ says Mr Bhadana, an information systems and finance major.
These days, there are plenty of resources available. In addition to NYC’s Young ChangeMakers, platforms like the Citibank-YMCA Youth for Causes provide mentors and funding to young social entrepreneurs.
Last year, the programme enabled undergraduates Eunice Liu, 24, Yvonne Han, 23, Gay Ling Fang, 23, and Jeremy Peh Kim Hua, 23, to organise an art auction and sell greeting cards for the St Andrew’s Autism Centre.
The group, mentored by Mr Lim Kian, 24, a former Youth for Causes participant, used seed money of $1,600 to mobilise 160 volunteers and artists who raised more than $25,000 for the centre.
Smaller youth-oriented groups like The Mentoring Academy and Syinc train leaders. Syinc also connects volunteers with the right groups.
People keen to get involved are not confined by Singapore’s borders. Activism thrives in a globalised world, as NUS Associate Professor Ho Kong Chong observes. ‘A lot more travel that young people and professionals are doing is volunteer travel – what I call ‘tourism with a cause’. I think it is then that their imagination gets fired up and they develop an affinity with the issue,’ he says.
Between 2006 and 2008, a fifth of primary schools, half of all secondary schools and almost all junior colleges had organised overseas community service trips for students. A further 17,500 young people have volunteered to help out overseas with the Youth Expedition Project since its launch in 2000.
One such project is Singapore Polytechnic’s partnership with the L V Prasad Eye Institute. It began in 2007 and each year involves 20 optometry students visiting communities in Hyderabad, India, to conduct free eye screenings and treatment.
About half have gone on to volunteer with local groups such as the Singapore National Eye Centre and Alexandra Hospital, while others like Mr Chen have become advocates in their own right.
And new media tools and sites like Facebook have become a key tool for mobilising and engaging the young.
Mr Jared Tham, 31, who co-founded a youth society, The Choice Initiative, in 2004, says: ‘Social networks have acted as an aggregator to draw together youth who would otherwise have very eclectic interests.’
With young people challenging the status quo and lobbying for change, some may wonder if their causes will cross into politically murky waters.
It was the mass activism of young people armed with mobile phones and linked up on Facebook and Twitter that played pivotal roles in the election of US President Barack Obama and opposition politicians in Malaysia, and in getting news of the Iran uprising to the outside world.
But Dr Terence Chong, a fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, feels what matters is not the issue in question but the way in which it is approached.
‘If an anti-censorship, non-governmental organisation is happy with writing long, pleading letters to the authorities, then it will always be politically safe,’ he says. ‘If, however, a welfare group for the elderly parades old people in front of the Istana with banners drawing attention to their plight, it would meet with what the Government calls a ‘robust’ response.
‘Unlike many other societies, there is little state sympathy for civil disobedience in Singapore, regardless of the cause.’
That, and the belief that the Government knows best, is perhaps why social activism here thrives among a select few.
Environmentalist Geh Min, 59, formerly a Nominated MP and Nature Society president, feels that while there is a small but passionate minority who become activists, young people tend to rely on the Government.
‘They ask questions like ‘Why doesn’t the Government do this and that?’, but the question really should be ‘What can we ourselves do?’,’ says Dr Geh.
‘The Government is not a superhero that’s going to come and save you from everything. If you can’t take the initiative to find solutions, where are our leaders going to come from?’
Mr Yip agrees: ‘Activism is a vision about a society created ‘from below’. It is not an alternative to government, but rather, the free space in which democratic attitudes are cultivated.
‘Democracy requires activism. A democratic society depends on the informed and active involvement of all its members – and its success depends on the space provided for such a participation.’
casschew@sph.com.sg
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