Gen Y, think outside that Kate Spade box

From The Straits Times
By Eisen Teo
Published 13 Apr 2011

MY GENERATION, Gen Y, is not notably associated with commitment. Rather, we have been called isolated, apathetic, disengaged, spoilt, narcissistic or the 'maid' generation - a reference to the soldier who got a domestic helper to carry his field pack. In short, we are the ones with an inflated sense of entitlement.

Then a 27-year-old comes along, unveiled as the People's Action Party's (PAP) youngest candidate in almost four decades. Never mind that Ms Tin Pei Ling has been a grassroots leader for the past six years and sits on the executive committee of Young PAP, the party's youth wing.

Netizens quickly lynched her, beginning with her Facebook and Twitter accounts. Her 'act cute' pictures were flamed. Her now infamous picture with a Kate Spade box, complete with a kawaii smile and fingers forming a victory sign, has appeared on my Twitter account at least half a dozen times.

Call it death by fashion accessory.

Then came grumbling over her connections: Her husband Ng How Yue, 40, is principal private secretary to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Others felt that a young, inexperienced woman getting into Parliament on the coat-tails of older ministers in a group representation constituency made a mockery of Singapore's electoral system.

That older ministers such as Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Information, Communications and the Arts Minister Lui Tuck Yew came out to defend her has only solidified detractors' beliefs that she cannot survive politics without help.

Never mind the white noise. To me, the bigger, more important picture is this: Young people like her are putting paid to the notion that Gen Y cares little about politics and is reluctant to serve the country.

In fact, she has no shortage of possible opponents. There's Mr Bernard Chen, 25, secretary of the Workers' Party (WP) youth wing; Mr Jarrod Luo, 26, honorary secretary of the Singapore Democratic Party's youth wing, the Young Democrats; financial adviser Alex Tan, 23, from the Singapore People's Party; and advertising executive Nicole Seah, 24, from the National Solidarity Party.

So many of us have grown up thinking that selling flags is the best we can do for our country, and that the best thing to do with a grievance is to turn into keyboard warriors - and stop there. I, at 26, have been guilty of that on more than one occasion.

But these young people have proven the rest of us wrong. They have joined their respective parties because they want to take ownership of their country and develop a greater interest in what's going on outside of their grades or the next pay packet.

They should set young voters thinking about who we want representing us.

This surely cannot be based on which big ticket purchase a candidate poses with in photographs. Rather, Gen Y should move beyond that and judge each youth's character, contributions and potential.

Cut them some slack too, and give them credit for showing up. These folks at least had the courage of their convictions to enter the political fray.

It isn't just Ms Tin who has done so. In fact, the young ones in the opposition camp have it harder. Without having party elders who are ministers to back them, their only option is to work the ground doubly hard to convince voters to put their faith in a relative unknown.

Mr Chen is one example. An undergraduate at the National University of Singapore (NUS), he juggles schoolwork with giving tuition and doing political work.

He helps Hougang Member of Parliament Low Thia Khiang with his Meet- the-People sessions and accompanies the WP chief on weekly walkabouts. Last year, he told me in an interview that a typical day for him begins at 9am and ends way past midnight - and there is no real day of rest for him.

Like Ms Tin, he is no newcomer to the political game. In 2008, the then Temasek Polytechnic student led a team of 15 which garnered 5,200 signatures over five months, to petition for fairer prices for public transport tertiary concession passes.

Last year, convinced that students need more of a say in the choice of their student union president, he tried to start a similar campaign in NUS to change the election process. He has put it on hold for the coming General Election.

Another thing Ms Tin and Mr Chen have in common: mislabelling by their peers. Some of Mr Chen's schoolmates regard him as a troublemaker and attention-seeker. They may well be the same ones who wring their hands and moan that their voices do not matter and will never be heard.

But if these youngsters in politics are anything to go by, Gen Y has no dearth of committed individuals willing to, in the words of the popular song, Stand Up For Singapore.

They have staked a claim on nation- building. Now it's time for their peers to assess them fairly.

One avenue to do so might be in a face-off debate. How about getting the under-30s from the various parties to participate in a live debate, aired on TV or even better, streamed 'live' over the Internet? Now, that would truly capture the imagination and attention of this nation's youth.

If Gen Y wants to be heard and desires representation in Parliament, we may want to resist flagellating our own before they even give their first speech, and reserve judgment for the ballot box.

Otherwise, I can't imagine anyone from this generation - or any other - desiring the job of representing us.

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