RA's Classes 2010

I agree with Mr Andrew.The PAP MPs are trying to reach out to young singaporeans as soon as possible by Facebook.I think that it is not a good or effective measure for them to take as not many young singaporeans are joining their facebook group.Nowadays,technology has been leading to many changes.

It is feasible to use social networking sites to reach out to the young since it is convenient, but the younger generation may not be interested in joining such political groups as they don't have the interest and they will think twice before joining such a group.

i agree with vanessa tay, not many youth will be interested to join political group. most youth that are using the facebook are still naive and they are not intrested with the issues happening around them yet..however more older people are using facebook today, the PAP should focus the attention on them instead..

i agree that not many youth are interested to join political group. but they are a smal group that will be interested and will have some help to the government by giving information.

To me, half of youths are politically apathetic and only a few are engaged in the affairs of the nation. Though honestly, it is sort of a good outlet for the PAP to bank on the politically-engaged youths (because almost all of us, even the political ones, are on Facebook) but it seems too, how should I put it...easy? It doesn't seem to be legitimate enough to have a PAP Facebook group, amongst the throngs of other Facebook groups trying to advocate menial things. I mean, how do I take a PAP Facebook group page with the utmost seriousness when next to it, I see a group calling for people to join them just because Megan Fox looked way different ages ago? And they've said that their Facebook profile pages are just a "wayang" (film; an act) for publicity's sake - not to be taken seriously - so I guess this way to govern, well, shouldn't be taken seriously?

I think that it s an interesting way to somehow connect the political leaders with the people. Even though there is not much discussion or debates about government issues, by making friends with the people, it shows that the leaders want to be closer with the people through their friendliness. There is increased connection between the leaders and the people in this way. Therefore, it is evident that technology can allow greater connection between the government and its people.

@ Mr Andrew: I dont think it will. Firstly, Singaporeans love to "mind their own business" so the majority couldnt care less if a Pakistani or a Uzbekistani were beside them. Besides, many of the youths my age will be too busy on their PSP to notice their surroudings no?

@ Viron lee : if u believe singaporeans have the mentality to 'mind our own business' they are likely to not interfere if such a situation does arise right? Just recently i was having dinner at the food court at vivo city and i witnessed a huge fight between a guy and a store aunty. He was screming his mind off and the aunty trying to fight back or soothe him down, everyone stared, no one bothered to help. If we're nt strong enough to interfere in such cases we're highly likely to chicken out when such a grave situation arises...

I think the British government has done the right thing in clarifying the specific instances in which assisted suicide is legal. Perhaps Singapore should consider similar legislation?

Singapore can consider the same legislation. I think that the patients' relatives should not keep on saying about assisted sucide to the terminally ill patients.They might feel that they are a burden to their loved ones.They will not be in a certainly right frame of mind. Sometimes I feel that assisted sucide helps the patients a lot,as we do not know their pain.They can be suffering from tremendous pain.

If assisted suicide is being persuaded by their loved ones to ease the suffering, it may not be something bad, however, if it is forced, the government should step in.

Maybe singapore should only allow euthanasia to be carried out only when the terminally patients wish to die as they are physically sick.

I agree with the British Prime Minister that the law on euthanasia should not be changed. If it is left to the patients or their relatives, they would surely choose the easy way out which is to resort to assisted suicide. This is especially bad for those who believe in God as they are going against His might. If it is not their time to go, it is not their time to go..they should just let it be.

Personally, I think that Singapore's education system and government's schemes have failed to retain our talents. Singapore has tried to create common identity through the pledge taking and also tried to create common space in order to root talents to Singapore. However, it is still not enough to retain them. It is really not about the relax lifestyle, lesser working hours and cheaper housing that overseas countries provide that pulls our talents away, even though i still believe that they would still influence talents' decision in some way or another, but the main crucial reasons why talents are leaving are that Singapore clearly lacks of career opportunities and entrepreneur platforms that talents require. Therefore, rather than competing with other Singaporeans in the small Singapore market, they would rather seek opportunities in a bigger market overseas. Singapore must act fast to minimize the brain drain situation as i believe attracting foreign talents is a short term solution and it brings about social distress. One example of social distress that cause by foreign talents is that, often these foreign talents often brought along their bad habits from their native counties back to Singapore and this causes racial disharmony. For example, some China foreign immigrants might bring along the habit of splitting to Singapore and because they are Chinese, other races would have the assumption that it is Singaporeans Chinese who did it and these create social tensions. (A poor example but.. hope you guys get the idea) Therefore, in conclusion, i believe that the step Government should take is to provide more career opportunities and to further strengthen the sense of belonging of Singaporeans. It is because China, a country that has been suffering brain drain from the early 1900s is enjoying brain gain in recent years due to the fact that the Chinese Government has put effort in providing entrepreneur platforms for its overseas talents.