SINGAPORE : Want to SMS the government to share your views and
aspirations for the nation?
The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports is
launching a public consultation exercise especially for young
people.
Starting on Saturday and lasting six weeks, the Ministry wants to
gather enough views to help shape future youth-related
policies.
Singapore has one of the highest SMS usage rates in the world, and
the government wants to tap in on this.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth
and Sports, said: "The definition of a Singaporean is
someone who can SMS with his phone in his pocket, and I now want to
tell you that you can do that and you can contact the
government...so no one has any excuse for not sharing his plans, or
his ideas."
Whether it is by SMS, telephone, email or fax, the Ministry wants
to invite all young Singaporeans to share their dreams and plans
for the nation.
This is the first time that a public consultation exercise is
focused specifically on the post independence generation or those
born after 1965.
Some have said that this generation is more politically apathetic
and unconcerned with larger national issues.
But Dr Vivian said this need not be the case.
Dr Vivian said: "I disagree with that, I think that that is a
perception and I intend to prove them wrong...there is a lot of
potential waiting to be tapped, and we need to open up those
avenues.
"We are about to witness a real flowering of ideas and activism
within Singapore, and our youth, particularly the post-independence
generation, must be the vanguard of this movement."
He wants the views collected during the consultation exercise to
form the basis of real policies dealing with youth
development.
Dr Vivian said: "We will be able to catalogue what is it young
Singaporeans are concerned about, what young Singaporeans want to
do. If there are any obstacles perceived or real, it would also be
identified, the resources available, the shortfalls in the
resources available would also be evident by then. This will allow
us to come out with a much more realistic and practical
plan."
As guest-of-honour at a Boys Brigade event, Dr Vivian found no
shortage of enthusiastic youths.
"We should be given more opportunity to stand up and do things for
the nation, and personally I find that the youth should be more
involved in community work."
"The youth could be more involved when it comes to political issues
and coming to the decisions that our country is making."
As part of this new initiative, there will also be a focus group,
bringing together youths from all walks of life to brainstorm and
discuss ideas.
The group will be led by Dr Mohamad Maliki, who will be assisted by
Dr Chong Weng Chiew and Ms Penny Low. All three MPs were born on or
after 1965.
The email is [email protected] Callers can also call
1800-3535555 or SMS 6353-5555. - CNA
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anyone keen to take up the offer?
i do believe there is alot of potential to be tapped - if not
anything, just by the responses in this forum.
but other than the lack of channels to air them, the other is the
reluctance to air them - to the authorities. people rather stick to
informal channels.
or am i wrong, and that people are more than willing to share their
views with the government if they provide more channels and
platforms to do so?
