Political apathy of Singaporean youths and Chinese youths in the developed provinces would be my main focus. What exactly is political apathy? I feel it is the lack of passion and zest for the political on goings within a country.
Should you ask any Singaporean student who the current Minister of Education is, only a handful would tell you who he is. Even myself, did not know the answer until I went online to search for the answer.
Among most youths in Singapore, politics would never be one of their top priorities. Among my friends and classmates, seldom or never would we discuss about the political happenings in Singapore, even during the General elections held last year. For most youth, the most they knew about General Elections was Tin Pei Ling or Nicole Seah. I remember a principal dialogue held last year regarding the General elections in Singapore. Compared to past dialogues that I have attended, the participation of student voicing their views on this matter was considered extremely little. And those who went up to voice their opinions shocked Dr Hon with their lack of understanding and interest in politics in Singapore.
I would say that Singaporean youths such as me, are mostly apathetic towards politics. For me, I stay away from politics because I have no interest for it. I feel PAP’s dominance in Singapore’s political arena resulted in my lack of interest. In the 2011 General elections, PAP dominated the elections, winning 81 out of 87 of the seats in parliament. And for the past few General Elections, such results were a common sight. It is this kind of expected results that killed my interest in Singapore politics. With PAP dominating the political arena, Singaporeans are able to predict the result even before they are announced. (My mother predicted all the results correctly)
Another reason is that we are happy with the way our lives are. Singapore is considered by many as a first world country with our annual GDP of 2011 259,823.8 Million U.S. dollars, and our GDP per Capita is ranked 11th in the world (http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/economy/hist/gdp2.html). Youths in Singapore lead comfortable lives and most of us do not see a need for a change. This satisfaction with their lives would result in youths becoming uninterested in politics. In other countries such as Syria, the people are unhappy with the way the government runs the country, thus the people upstage protests and demonstrations against the government. It is dissatisfaction that forces people to be involved in politics, and in Singapore, most youths are happy with the lives they have.
In the developed provinces of China, youths are also apathetic towards their countries politics. China is a single party state where the Chinese Communist party has complete control over the political scene in China. Because China is a communist state, no elections are being held and the Chinese have no say over the choosing of the leaders of the country.
It is widely considered that Chinese youth in the developed provinces are politically apathetic. I feel that Chinese youths are not willing to participate in politics mainly due to the fact that the Chinese Youths are the Millennials, a generation largely regarded as self-centred. These youths are more interested in chasing branded goods that being involved in politics. They are widely considered to care more about themselves rather than other people, let alone their country’s politics. Another reason was because of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese government severely oppresses any opposition towards the government with measure such as arresting, for example Ai Weiwei, and the Great Firewall of China. Events such as the Tiananmen incident where university students upstaged protests against the Chinese government and the army was called in to disperse the protests, causing many to be killed, cause the Chinese youths to think twice before meddling in politics. It is this fear of being oppressed that Chinese youth are being repelled from participating in politics.
However I feel that although the Chinese youth are not active in politics, they cannot be considered politically apathetic. During my time at the Beijing Satellite campus, my observations of Chinese students made me surprise of how concerned they were about their countries politics. I remember one time, I overheard a conversation between two male students. They were extremely worked up while discussing the credentials and abilities of their next premier Xi Jing Ping over breakfast. I could feel the zest, passion and concern during their conversation, something you can seldom find in Singaporean students. I noticed that politics was a common topic among Chinese students.
In conclusion, by comparing Singaporean youths and Chinese youths, Singaporean youths are much more apathetic towards politics. And by the way, the Minister of Education of Singapore is Heng Swee Kiat.
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