This is written as part of the module NM2220 Media Writing.
With the lowering of Malaysia’s voting age, the discussion on whether Singapore should follow suit has received many controversies. Erica Kuo speaks to young Singaporeans to find out more.
Caption: Youths today are too busy pursuing an education to be aware of politics and its intricacies. There should be more efforts to educate these youths about local politics in our education system.
Red and white barricade tapes are taped up against the walls of the polling station. Long streams of Singaporeans stand behind these tapes, chatting heartily with their neighbours while waiting to cast their vote. This is a scene we see every 5 years – the Polling Day.
In Singapore, it is mandatory for all Singaporeans above 21-years-old to vote. In contrast, many countries internationally have allowed their citizens to vote at 18-years-old, some even at 16-years-old. Following suit, the Progressive Singapore Party (PSP) has proposed to lower Singapore’s voting age to 18-years-old. However, Singaporeans have differing views on this issue.
According to an online poll among 100 NUS students, 77% of them are not in favour of lowering Singapore’s voting age.
Lack of Awareness and Knowledge
In Singapore, youths at 18 are either entering University, Army or still in Polytechnic. Most of them are grade-oriented and are often not interested nor have the time to learn about politics. “As youths, politics is not our priority because our opinions will not make an impact.” said Hong Shao Yi, a 22-year-old Computer Science student.
Many students, even those above 21-years-old, finds it difficult to decide who to vote for. “I am still not ready to vote as I have very little knowledge about my constituency and what the parties involved are proposing” said 22-year-old Computer Engineering student, Leow Yong Heng.
However, 21-year-old Ashrita Khasnavis from Communications and New Media beg to differ. “Many young Singaporeans are highly educated and thus would be objective in evaluating their choice of vote”
According to a survey by The Straits Times and Singapore University of Social Sciences on more than 1000 19-year-olds, at least half still read newspapers. With the abundance of political news in newspapers, youths today may still be aware of Singapore politics. Nonetheless, the types of news studied were not mentioned in the survey. Youths might not be reading about politics after all.
Caption: 19-year-old Zann Chua is stressed about having to make a decision on who to vote for. She thinks that youths like herself lack a certain level of maturity and life experience to comprehend the full ramifications of voting.
Voting requires maturity and experience
At 18-years-old, youths think very differently from adults who have real life experience. Youths may be highly educated but things will not stop being ideas and theories until they experience life.
“Voting requires certain level of maturity and life experience to comprehend the full ramifications of the act.” said 19-year-old Business Administration student, Zann Chua.
However, Khasnavis finds that “18 is sufficient maturity evident from other countries. Men serve NS at 18 while women make life choices in choosing what degree to pursue. Hence, youths, the future leaders of Singapore, ought to have a say.”
Regardless, a 2009 neuroscience research by Johnson, Blum and Gieldd has shown that logical and inductive reasoning, rationalization and analytical skills that can affect one’s ability to make decisions only fully mature at 25-years-old. To say that youths at 18-years-old are mature enough to vote may not hold entirely true.
Impressionable and easily influenced
Youths are easily influenced by what is said online and by their peers especially since they use social media as a revenue to learn about current affairs. With the ubiquity of fake news and personal opinions in social media, voting based on what people say online can be risky.
This is further reinforced by Leow, “By forcing 18-year-olds to vote, students who have yet to form their political opinions would be influenced by opinionated friends or family. This may skew votes because of popularity and may not represent what people really want”.
Moving forward
According to the general consensus from the interviews, the Government needs to further engage, motivate and educate youths on local politics to prepare them to make an informed choice when they turn 21-years-old. It is not a necessity for Singapore to lower its voting age since there are already initiatives such as the SG Youth Action Plan which allows voices of youths to be heard. There might be a time when Singapore will lower her voting age when youths become more educated and involved in Singapore’s politics but not in the near future.
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