By Sean Lim

When I was 17, my friends and I had to choose which junior college (JC) to go to after our ‘O’ Level results were released. Rather than selecting a school based on its merits, many of us decided that we should just go to whichever JC most of our friends would end up in.

Going with the herd is not a very wise choice. If we could not even make an informed choice in our own education journey, how do you think we would decide if given a say in the direction our country is heeding?

I am referring to the Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) proposal to lower the voting age from 21 to 18, brought up by its Central Executive Committee member Ms Michelle Lee, during the party’s public launch on Saturday (3 Aug) at Swissotel Merchant Court hotel.

On 15 July 2019, Malaysia lowered its voting age from 21 to 18. In the ASEAN bloc, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand have a minimum voting age of 18 while Indonesians get to vote at 17.

Ms Lee, 42, thinks Singapore is already behind the times. She said: “Young people are the future of this country and should have a say in what they want that future to be.” At 18, she added, they will have “very clear opinions on what they want to see in Singapore”.

Ms Lee, who unsuccessfully contested in Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency in the 2011 General Election under the Singapore Democratic Party’s banner, is a political returnee. The former management consultant and investment banker quit the SDP and left for Hong Kong after the election. She returned three years ago and is now pursuing a masters in counselling.

Some of my peers may disagree with me, but I do not think our 18-year-olds are ready to mark that cross on the ballot paper. And I am saying this as a millennial who was 18 not too long ago and for whom the coming general election would be his first as an eligible voter.

After the PSP’s launch, I did an informal poll on my Instagram, asking my followers if they thought they would be ready to vote at age 18. Of 40 respondents ranging from 14 to 26 years of age, 80 per cent, or 30 of them, said no.

Well-read, but well-informed?

If we want our youths to vote at 18, surely they must be well-informed first. A recent survey by The Straits Times and Singapore University of Social Sciences found out that among more than 1,000 19-year-olds, more than half of them read newspapers, online or print versions.

So the results are not bad, but they do not say if they read about local developments, economic or political news or prefer lighter reading lighter fare like entertainment news. At age 18, you worry about further studies or doing National Service. Your views are shaped by your social circle, and they would be about your age, too. News is not on their radar screen.

I venture to say that in my chats with them, most teenagers do not know what is going on around them or what politics is all about. One of them said she will go with the flow and choose the political party that is more popular among those in her social circle, if she had to vote. It’s the way of the herd again.

No skin in the game

I am a 24-year-old undergraduate who is well-informed on socio-political affairs. Yet, I still struggle to grapple with the intricacies of VERS, SERS, stamp duty, Medishield, among others. I am sure I am not alone. These issues do not resonate with most young adults, much less 18 year olds.

Older adults have a stake in them because their lives are directly affected. Younger ones have the privilege of watching things happen, or having the older folk do the brain work for them.

They don’t have to purchase a flat, pay for healthcare out of their own pockets or search for a job yet. They might have a lot to say about the education system because they are its products. But beyond what is “personal’’ to them, I doubt if they would view education the way a parent would.

PSP wants the voting age lowered because, said its chief Tan Cheng Bock, “it will mean more to (the young people) if they are a part of our democratic process’’. That might be so. But he must have also calculated that having more young voters is also good for the opposition because they tend to be trendily anti-Establishment, at least more so than the older folk.

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