In the 2006 general elections, out of the 1.22 million eligible voters who fortunately had the chance to cast their votes, an approximate 40% of the electorate were made up of the young and were most probably voting for the first time.
The young in this context refers to the 3rd generation of Singaporeans. Singaporeans who did not experienced the ardous process of nation building and were the main beneficaries of the PAP system. This group of people are usually born after 1975.The young had the opportunity to study about Western values, history, culture and the system of government and most of the young do compared our model of government that we have in Singapore to the form of government they see in more established democracies. Slowly, but surely, major flaws in the system were inevitably noticed.
The young were not only more daring to challenge the status quo and more willing to question the major flaws in the government, for instance, the government's habit of filing libel suits against the opposition to keep them out of the fray, the GRC system, the politial donations act, the attitudes of the PAP in Hougang and Potong Pasir, but this group of people are also able to come up with alternative ideas, policies that could potentially be much better than the policies of the current PAP government. In the 2006 elections, it was clearly evident that the PAP courted the interests of the young aggressively. This was clearly illustarted in the TV debate that MM Lee Kuan Yew had with a group of young journalists. The PAP do realised that this group of people is increasingly pivtol to the balance of power in Singapore in the years to come. Ignoring them is as good as political suicide.
In the opinion of the author, the government faced an uphill challenge of striving to stay relevant to the young. Although there was no concrete evidence to show that the young tend to vote against the PAP, but if the PAP were to continue to adopt strategies and policies that were so effectively in pulling in the votes of the 1st and 2nd generation of Singaporeans, this new force in Singapore politics could be eventually become disillusioned with the government and would most probably expressed this at the ballot box in the 2011 elections.In short, the 2006 elections exposed the fact that the PAP is not in sync with the 3rd generation of Singapore and plenty needs to be done to bring them into the fold. What makes this group of Singaporeans different from their predecessors is this: They are not so easily taken in by the "hongbaos" given out by the government as they are able to better reason out and decide for themselves the underlying motives and intentions of the PAP and its policies. However, what is the most detrimental to the PAP about this group of young and restless Singaporeans, is that they possessed the ability to be the "informal" government is terms of policy-making and breeding of better ideas and concepts - policies and ideas that the PAP government sorely needs to bring the country forward.The inability to involved them in the the decision and policies making process could spark off an exodus of votes to the increasingly credible and appealing opposition who are increasingly been perceived as being able and equally as capable as the people in the PAP government, and who might be able to address the needs and demands of this group of young and restless Singaporeans better
