Discouraging news from home. From the Straits Times Interactive:

Youth averse to disagree with Govt

By Neo Hui Min

THEY know of Newater, the tudung controversy and the plot by militants to bomb Yishun MRT station, but are much less aware of the Feedback Unit or the Remaking Singapore Committee.

And when it comes to publicly expressing views that differed from the Government, most of the 800 young Singaporeans in a Singapore Polytechnic survey said they felt uncomfortable doing so.

In fact, only 15 per cent had no qualms speaking out.

'Many cannot be bothered or think their views have no impact. A small percentage did not want to get into trouble,' business school director V. Maheantharan said of the findings.

Apathy was the main reason for their reluctance to use feedback channels, he said, adding that fear appeared to be another reason - although what they feared was not clear.

To address this problem, the Government should give more publicity to channels such as its Feedback Unit, as well as include more youngsters in its dialogues, he said.

'The Government needs to seek youngsters out and get them to feel comfortable speaking out,' he added.

Only one in four was aware of the Feedback Unit. Few knew of its website and fewer were aware of the Remaking Singapore website.

They were most familiar with The Straits Times Forum pages as avenue for feedback, followed by Speakers' Corner and Talking Point on television.

The survey, by second year Media and Communication students, looked at youths' awareness of local current affairs and feedback channels, their understanding of Singapore's political process, and how they obtained their news.

It was conducted over two weeks last August and involved adults and students aged between 15 and 29.

While a healthy portion, 41 per cent of respondents, said they would use existing channels to get their views across, an almost similar number would not. This 39 per cent felt their views would have no impact or just could not be bothered.

But what was comforting in the survey was that young Singaporeans were abreast of the hottest news; about two out of three were aware of at least six of the 11 issues presented to them.

These included Newater, the tudung issue, the foiled terrorist threat, the hike in goods and services tax, Singapore's gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, and rear-seat belts.

This surprised the survey team, which thought that the oft-labelled apathetic youths would not fare too well. And being youths themselves, some team members admitted they knew little of some topics.

Said Miss Ng Ju Ann, 18: 'We had to put a lot of work into researching some of these issues, so we could ask good questions and know the right answers.'

But respondents were lost when it came to Singapore's political processes. They knew the Prime Minister, Senior Minister and voting age, but many were stumped on the number of elected MPs. Only one in 10 knew it was 82.

And many confused the Cabinet with Parliament. Said Mr Maheantharan: 'Perhaps because of the one-party rule, the concept of Parliament, Cabinet and Government has become blurred.'