Bread-and-butter issues such as competition for jobs, housing costs and maternity leave were the main focus of an Our Singapore Conversation session held yesterday.
This would not have been unusual - except that the forum was held for youth.
Chaired by Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and held at Toa Payoh Public Library, it was attended by 60 participants - mostly local residents. A third were aged below 20 and led the debate.
One of them was 17-year-old Louis Low who stood up in response to Dr Ng's claim that the whole of Louis' generation would be able to afford a four-room flat.
Louis said he did not come from a well-to-do family. His father is a hawker centre cleaner earning about $700 a month while his mother, a retail assistant, earns about $1,700.
"What if I don't do well in my studies and become like my father? I don't dare to say that I can afford a four-room flat. It'll be worse if I'm also trying to start a family," said Louis, who will be starting his chemical engineering course at Singapore Polytechnic later this year.
Dr Ng, an MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, said the Government is trying to lower the prices of Build-To-Order flats in non-mature estates to four years of the annual median income of flat applicants.
When the debate turned towards employers preferring to hire foreign workers instead of locals to lower costs, Secondary 3 student Edric Wong, 14, said: "Most of the complaints are aimed at foreign expats competing for high-income jobs." As the discussion heated up, Toh Qin Ying, 17, said that perhaps Singaporeans should not treat foreigners as competitors but as people they can learn from.
She told The Sunday Times that she started being concerned about these "adult" issues after being exposed to them through the media.
"I was watching the news and heard that housing prices are soaring. It's quite scary," the Anderson Junior College student said. "We have to be mature at this age. We're stepping into our 20s soon, (we) cannot still think like primary school kids."
Asked if he was surprised that the young crowd was bringing up such mature issues, Dr Ng laughed.
"I guess Singaporeans are very serious, or maybe just this crowd is very serious, I don't know."
http://www.straitstimes.com/premium...e-air-concerns-over-jobs-and-housing-20130317
Come 2016, he will know whether bread-&-butter and Housing are masak masak or serious issues.
This would not have been unusual - except that the forum was held for youth.
Chaired by Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and held at Toa Payoh Public Library, it was attended by 60 participants - mostly local residents. A third were aged below 20 and led the debate.
One of them was 17-year-old Louis Low who stood up in response to Dr Ng's claim that the whole of Louis' generation would be able to afford a four-room flat.
Louis said he did not come from a well-to-do family. His father is a hawker centre cleaner earning about $700 a month while his mother, a retail assistant, earns about $1,700.
"What if I don't do well in my studies and become like my father? I don't dare to say that I can afford a four-room flat. It'll be worse if I'm also trying to start a family," said Louis, who will be starting his chemical engineering course at Singapore Polytechnic later this year.
Dr Ng, an MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, said the Government is trying to lower the prices of Build-To-Order flats in non-mature estates to four years of the annual median income of flat applicants.
When the debate turned towards employers preferring to hire foreign workers instead of locals to lower costs, Secondary 3 student Edric Wong, 14, said: "Most of the complaints are aimed at foreign expats competing for high-income jobs." As the discussion heated up, Toh Qin Ying, 17, said that perhaps Singaporeans should not treat foreigners as competitors but as people they can learn from.
She told The Sunday Times that she started being concerned about these "adult" issues after being exposed to them through the media.
"I was watching the news and heard that housing prices are soaring. It's quite scary," the Anderson Junior College student said. "We have to be mature at this age. We're stepping into our 20s soon, (we) cannot still think like primary school kids."
Asked if he was surprised that the young crowd was bringing up such mature issues, Dr Ng laughed.
"I guess Singaporeans are very serious, or maybe just this crowd is very serious, I don't know."
http://www.straitstimes.com/premium...e-air-concerns-over-jobs-and-housing-20130317
Come 2016, he will know whether bread-&-butter and Housing are masak masak or serious issues.
