And these folks know the federal tax system pretty well….all I can say is that student activism is something that helps young people to understand things better- even if many aren’t going into politics. I mean, even President Obama was once a student activist in his uni days- before he became a community organiser. Look what happened to him…surely his experience helped him.

I agree with what was written in the Young PAP article. The School Administration of Singapore Polytechnic was very hard handed in dealing with my younger brother when he led a campaign to separate the student union from the school administration few years ago. Lawyers were involved.

Think about it – if our student leaders are made to cooperate with the school administration in a non-confrontational way, then it is very likely that future trade union leaders will also behave similarly. If we are sick with NTUC’s non-confrontational tripartism, then we have to first liberalise our student unions first

Stop labeling the youths, political apathy is something that inflicts all Singaporeans, or which the older generation is not immune. In fact, it is my generation that has started to speak out, the alleged “Gen Y”, against government policies. What has the Gen X done for politics post 1975? Nod their heads and vote majority every election?

You want real change, wait till my generation becomes the bulk of the voters.

Interesting anecdote. Could you tell us more about what the mood was like on campus back then amongst the students? Or some insight on how the admin was reacting to student dissatisfaction?

Otherwise, it will still sound like a bottomless request for money, and the request will turn a deaf ear.

Likewise, any push for additional benefits to labour must be justified. If the “market price” is not used to justify, then some other common ground must be used to set the “fair price”. Otherwise, it will still look like another bottomless demand, and the whole effort will be futile.

Labour day should have broader implications, how much have our Govt done to help Singaporeans who lost their jobs? what has JCS and upgrading, training achieved todate for those PMET? are they better off or worst off with all these schemes in place.

Graduates are not getting their dream jobs and were told to like what they do and not do what they like. This sounds very upsetting for people who studied very hard with their parents hard-earned money and also underwent strenous streaming process to make them stand out but unfortunately, all their aspiration to contribute became an illusion and they, like any other odd job workers, have to accept blue collar jobs until the economy picks up (god knows when) under the current passive leadership.

However, the most active arm of the union is actually its environmental activism arm. In the style of successful local environmentalism efforts, they have worked together with the administration to greatly improve the ecological impact of the NUS community.

So that being said, I think the scene of student activism in Singapore (or at least in NUS) has, under the influence of governing rules and policies, shifted away from confrontational methods to cooperative means. Has there been a drop in its impact, as a consequence? I do not know, since I did not live through the former period of student activism, but I can certainly say that the cooperative form does yield some results.