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i’m amused over the whole issue of the national youth forum held in singapore recently. apart from the unusually stern coverage from today, the other english papers basically gave milk-and-water homilies to their readers. sometimes it makes me wonder whether the st is even worth its weight in dead trees. i bet halting circulation of the straits times will do wonders in reducing the rate of deforestation in indonesia. let the newspapers harbor exotic rainforest species instead of smelly fish at the wet markets.
judging by what today reported, the proposition for the “final debate” (motion: sgeans rely too much on the gahmen for social welfare provision) was muddle-headed and skewed their stand so as to want to win. people took offense at the debater who unbelievably said “beggars can’t be choosers.” one of the judges made a comment that i could not help but feel that he was pissed off because he didn’t hear what he wanted to hear. but then again, it could just be my gut response to second-hand information.
it’s really sad when the crème de la crème of sg don’t even know, or can’t even bother to research, the facts surrounding the motion before talking about it. just like the whole ballyhoo over the icered bitchfest over which are america’s best universities. the insanity has finally stopped because some moderator stepped in and locked the thread. hooray! with bloopers like listing carnegie mellon as a midwestern university, it was about time someone put an end to the festering pool of nonsense. Question summed it up best: “Its been a few years since I went to university, but when I did I spent precious little time in mindless debates with people over the virtues of the schools we attended, might attend or never would attend…Now go drink a beer and find a girlfriend. Well at least drink some tea and masturbate.” poor seekok, apparently a loyal reader who bravely waded his way into the morass of misinformation and tried his best to reduce the entropy of the thread.
just look at how the singapore english newspapers covered the story (i didn’t really search the new paper but i highly doubt any original coverage would have existed there). rife with substandard vocabulary, funky punctuation, and even grammatical mistakes, these articles would have made any decent editor scrawl out in agony. but not in singapore, apparently.
TODAY: Debate upsets some in audience: some young people fail to understand the concept of welfarism by Ng Shing Yi, December 24, 2004.
FOR a month, 60 elite young people, aged 17 to 25, were kept together as part of the inaugural National Youth Forum (NYF), where they were given access to talk about national policy with no less than President S R Nathan, Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan and Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi.
There were high hopes that these young people - also given access to business and community leaders - would put together a cogent and well-articulated argument during the climax of the forum: A “Final Debate” held yesterday at the National Trades Union Congress auditorium.
Unfortunately, despite the elite access and hothouse coaching on national issues, the young people failed to impress. Worse still, some of their comments offended those in the audience.
Debating the topic, “Singaporeans rely too much on the Government for social welfare provision,” one of the students arguing on the proposition team said “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
Her team also implied that Singaporeans from low-income families who could not pay their bills on time and needed welfare assistance were “ignorant” and “lazy”.
They went on to question the “dependence” of those who were structurally unemployed on the Government’s job-matching services from the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA).
Though it was clear that the young people in the group were only intending to win the debate, audience member and unionist Chen Pei Chi took offence to some of their comments.
Said NTUC’s Madam Chen, who rose to speak during the question-and-answer session: “I take offence at the comment, beggars can’t be choosers. Those who need help are not beggars, we are needy citizens”.
She added: “The Government has a responsibility to help needy citizens”.
Her point was reinforced by guest-of-honour and former debater, Dr Balakrishnan, who stood at the end of the debate to give his take on the session.
Explaining the “rights of citizens and Singaporeans”, he said: “My comrade from NTUC spoke with conviction. As a Singaporean, as a citizen, you are not a beggar. You are an owner of the country.”
“The Government has a certain duty to its citizens. First, security, to enable its citizens to live in peace; and second, to give them the opportunity to make a living. Welfare comes after the two categories,” he said.
The two judges also criticised the debaters for being too intent on winning the debate rather than expressing their true opinions.
Deputy adjudicator and chairman of media firm The Right Angle Group, Mr Viswa Sadasivan said: “There could have been a lot more persuasion than aggressive articulation of ideas. Certain expressions on faces we found to be unacceptable”.
Mr Sadasivan also hoped for “more of the youth perspective” and greater engagement, the “locking of horns”, between proposition and opposition teams, which failed to connect even on common definitions such as what is “social welfare provision”.He also found the lack of “conviction” to be disappointing, as did chief adjudicator and Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports and Health, Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman.
“I wanted to see more dare, more challenging of the status quo, which we didn’t see enough of. It could be the format, or nerves, but you need to work on that, or you won’t be able to do justice to yourselves,” said Mr Sadasivan.
Straits Times: “Youth forum ignites passion to do more” by Azhar Ghani, Dec 24, 2004
A FOUR-WEEK government programme for young Singaporeans to speak up, be heard and act on issues close to their hearts ended yesterday with some participants fired up to do much more.
One of the 60 selected participants, 22-year-old accountancy undergraduate Soh Wee Ling, told The Straits Times she plans to organise activities to promote inter-ethnic understanding - an issue she is passionate about.
She had signed up for the inaugural National Youth Forum (NYF), which ended its first four-week programme yesterday, precisely to pursue this concern.
The NYF was an idea from the Remaking Singapore Committee.
Its aim is to let young Singaporeans take a close look at national issues from a policymaking perspective, and by interacting with decision-makers and discussing with their peers.
Miss Soh was one of the speakers who took part in two debates - on the foreign talent issue and the people’s reliance on the Government for social welfare provision - held at the NTUC Auditorium to mark the end of NYF 2004.
Her plans to promote inter-ethnic understanding are over and above the NYF project her group - one of four participants were divided into - has to implement after the end of NYF 2004.
Her group’s project will be a youth camp to be held in March next year.
In aspiring to start her own project outside the NYF, she has answered the challenge issued by Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan at yesterday’s event.
Dr Balakrishnan, who is also chairman of the National Youth Council, told participants they should go away from the experience with three things: a sense of the constraints policymakers here face; the ability to use their imagination to come up with ideas that recognise these constraints; and the ability to act on these ideas.
He said: ‘By all means talk, by all means discuss, argue, debate. At the end of the day, do something, do something useful, do something meaningful, do something that makes a difference.’
Aged between 17 and 25, the 60 participants were described by Mr Ahmad Nizam Abbas, chairman of the NYF steering committee, as young people with original ideas, strong convictions and the potential to contribute.
They were selected from 140 applicants.
Channel NewsAsia: Youth minister urges S’pore youths to translate ideas into action by Farah Abdul Rahim, Dec 24, 2004
SINGAPORE : Singapore’s youth are more engaged, responding to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s call for them to come forward with ideas.
This assessment came from the Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth & Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.
And he is now asking Singapore youths to walk the talk, by translating the ideas into action.
Young Singaporeans made their ideas heard at the first-ever National Youth Forum debate.
For 17-year-old Romita Das, she answered the Prime Minister’s call for youth to come forward.
“I came out after his call. It’s time to act, time to put your ideas to reality and that’s what made us come out. It’s the opportunity that we would get to implement a policy in the community is what I think motivated most of us to come out and help,” Romita said.
“We are not stopping here, we are going to start on community projects, which goes back to the ground. We’re aiming to reach secondary school students and draw them into community service,” another youth said.
Acting Youth Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan egged the youngsters to do more.
He said: “It is not enough to just say something, you need to do something about it and act on it. I hope to see a lot more ideas on the ground, and see translate them into projects, into organizations, both formal and informal. And I hope to be in a position to encourage, give seed funding, to promote and create that buzz, that fizz in the youth scene.”
Going forward in 2005, Dr Vivian said that while the first phase of the youth consultation exercise may have come to an end, it’s now down to the implementation of youth projects next year.
This will be another example of greater youth participation and engagement.
In the end, there were no winners or losers at the debate as the 60 participants brought back not just a certificate, but a dose of reality.
There are also plans to expand the National Youth Forum to include more Singaporeans next year. - CNA
