Why it's not easy to get young voters onside

In January 2004, months before he took over as Prime Minister, then DPM Lee Hsien Loong laid out his political vision for Singapore in a speech to the Harvard Club.

- Danson Cheong

In it, he said the Government would be more open and inclusive in its policy-making.

He called for greater civic participation, and also said there would be more space for alternative views.

"Singapore is now at another major transition point. It is not just a changing of the guard. Our world has changed irrevocably, a younger generation born after Independence is now in majority, and our strategies to grow our economy and root our people must change," Mr Lee said then.

He pointed out that as Singaporeans became more educated and informed, their desire for more openness would also grow.

A friend sent over this speech this week after PM Lee announced that he would be stepping aside for DPM Lawrence Wong to take over in May.

It is worth reading at a time when Singapore is again about to mark a major political milestone - with Mr Wong taking over as the country's fourth prime minister on May 15.

In his two decades at the helm, Singaporeans have seen how PM Lee has steered the country's political liberalisation in a pragmatic fashion, keeping up with the desires and aspirations of the electorate.

The question now is how this will continue under Mr Wong's leadership, now that a new generation of voters has come of age, one that has perhaps even greater desire for political openness and diversity.

Many of them have the same question on their minds that PM Lee posed all those years ago.

He said: "Many Singaporeans ask: Moving forward, will society continue to open up?"

THE YOUNG VOTE

At the last General Election, in 2020, the ruling PAP garnered 61.2 per cent of the popular vote, its third-lowest vote share since Independence. It also lost Sengkang GRC to the Workers' Party.