My personal opinion is that there are avenues available for youths to express their views. However, the problem mostly lies with youths who are not thinking for themselves. They don’t challenge themselves or challenge authority. Of course, you might argue that the powers-that-be are stifling the voices of the community, including youths, with all their threats of defamation and all those times in which we’ve seen the Sedition Act been invoked. Another point I like to make is that it seems that the opinions of youths in general, while valid, can be further developed upon, but that rarely happens and we see youths express those points of views in a crude, crass and raw manner. Yes, youths do need more breathing space to air their opinions, but then again, are Singaporean youths mature enough to handle the increased freedom if it’s given to them? A significant portion of youths today seem more interested in mundane day-to-day activities and don’t concern themselves with larger issues, be it international news or even local news.

Another thing to consider would be your definition of youths; how old should they be? 13? 18? 21? 25? 30? A lot of my points made above were made in relation to the far younger crowd who seem apathetic, so apathetic that they might even find it difficult to generate a point of view.

Hence before we consider improving the system, which undoubtedly can be bettered, we should think about getting youths to start thinking critically. Once that has been achieved, then does the whole issue of improving the system through which youths voice their views come into play. On that note, yes, we can afford to have more avenues through which youths can express their views but I don’t think it is really necessary. We can make use of what we have for their views to get across. Things like the Straits Times Forum, the Voices section in Today, or even the Feedback Unit. Youths can voice their views, but whether they will be taken into account is another issue altogether.