INSIGHT: APATHETIC YOUTHS? NOT IF THERE'S INTEREST AND CONVICTION
The Straits Times, 7 Dec 2002

Declining membership in clan associations is old news. Grassroots bodies struggle constantly to recruit younger leaders. Where have all the young people gone? Our community reporter finds out

By Neo Hui Min

MR KAPIL Sharma, a 25-year-old telecommunications consultant, heard two years ago that there was an e-mail list for rabbit lovers. He signed up. This April, he roped in nine online friends and formed the House Rabbit Society. Membership multiplied twelvefold in eight months. Today, there are 125 rabbit lovers in the club.

Miss Chan Mei Lik, 29, an executive officer with Singapore Pools, set up two pooch clubs last year - one for labradors and golden retrievers, the other for cocker spaniels. Today, each has more than 100 members. Almost all, without fail, take their dogs to the beach for a swim every month.

Also about a year ago, a group of condominium dwellers who wanted to share their experiences in managing these private estates got together to form the Association for Management Corporations. It started with 10 corporations; it now boasts more than 200.

Three months ago, 28-year-old support logistics officer Guan Boon Cheng started an Irish music group with a handful of other enthusiasts. Today, they meet once a month to play the flute, fiddle, whistle and bodhran, a hand-held drum.

Instead of turning to established organisations - such as the People's Association and the clans - more and more young people are forming their own groups and associations.

The Registry of Societies has no separate statistics for youth groups, but its overall figures show a steady climb in the number of societies being registered: from 2,900 in 1980 to 4,100 in 1990, 5,400 in 2000, and 5,600 as of September this year.

The trend belies the conventional wisdom that Singapore youths lack initiative and interest in the world around them.

Leaders of clan associations and grassroots organisations, for instance, often bemoan their difficulties in attracting younger members. They resort to image overhauls and introducing more 'hip' activities to draw the young, but often with limited success.

Yet, hobby clubs and civic groups started by and for the young apparently have little difficulty getting other 'apathetic' Generation X-ers off their butts. Whether it's love of animals, nature, music, food or yoga - you name it - there is a group of devotees out there spending evenings or weekends together.

What's their secret? In a nutshell, it's simple shared interest supported by growing affluence.

Miss Chan sees her canine clubs as a means of enabling dogs and their owners to 'socialise'.

Club member Jocelyn Moh, 28, a secretary, says: 'I spend my weekends with my dog anyway. So it's even better if I can spend it with other people who like spending time with their dogs too.'

It helps too when members are fired by a sense of mission. The rabbit lovers are taking it upon themselves to educate Singaporeans about not abandoning their pets.

Some of the labrador and golden retriever owners have volunteered themselves and their dogs for training with the Singapore Civil Defence Force.

They believe that their group of about 15 dogs can be mobilised as part of a search-and-rescue team should a disaster strike.

Mr Goh Si Guim, 40, a perfusionist - someone who assists in transfusion during surgical operations - signed up with the Nature Society 13 years ago because he felt that it had a useful cause.

'I used to live in a kampung. I saw the need to share with urban people the joy of nature, and the importance of preserving places. Through a society, we can organise ourselves better to do useful things like conduct public education or push for conservation,' he says.

Indeed, the society's membership surged after it succeeded in getting the authorities to designate Sungei Buloh as a nature area a decade ago.

From a few hundred members, it now has 2,100. Last year, it won the fight to spare the Chek Jawa marine nature area from land reclamation.

Dr Ho Hua Chew, the society's conservation committee chairman, declares: 'We're not a hobby group. As you can see from our conservation proposals, we're an advocacy group.'

The former National University of Singapore lecturer now runs his own ecology consultancy.

GETTING A SAY IN CLUBS

ASSOCIATE Professor Chua Beng Huat, a sociologist who teaches at the National University of Singapore, says, 'the conclusion is obvious... Young people are not apathetic as they have often been described to be.'

The only caveat is, they 'want to be left alone to do their own things'.

Young people prefer to set up clubs and societies of their own rather than join similar activities at clans and community groups, because they get to set their own rules about how to run their clubs and what issues to fight for.

Their interests are not all self- indulgent either. Ms Yap Ching Wi, a volunteer social worker and part-time dance-group project manager, notes that membership of the Social Workers' Association, a professional body, has grown steadily to 400.

'The cool thing is that the new members, the young people, are completely proactive. They take the initiative to organise career talks for junior college students, so as to develop the social worker profession,' she says.

The Internet catalysed the formation of many of these interest groups. Tech-savvy 20-somethings go online to find those with similar interests.

The rabbit society and the pooch clubs started as e-mail lists. Even established groups such as the Association of Women for Research (Aware) is having a fair bit of success in using the Internet to get young people involved in their new projects.

LIMITED GROWTH POTENTIAL

THESE young clubs, however, face one in-built limitation: Precisely because they cater to a narrow interest, their growth is likely to slow down after a while.

The Singapore Heritage Society, for instance, has seen its membership hit a plateau at around 120 over the last decade, even though it has been putting out regular publications and been getting more notice from the media.

'Because they cater to a specific topic, it's unlikely that membership will keep growing,' says its president, management consultant Kevin Tan, of such specialised societies.

But even though these narrow-interest groups stop growing after a while, they remain of concern to grassroots organisations and clans.

To compete for their share of young Singaporeans, many among the latter have started similar interest groups.

The People's Association, which celebrated its 40th anniversary two years ago, took tentative steps towards funkiness by starting Lindy Hop groups and the Wall Mural Club. This draws people together to paint murals on public walls, with permission of course.

The idea of legalised graffiti attracts young people, but the PA's chief executive director recognises that the association cannot keep expanding its scope of activities in order to net the young ones.

'To be honest, sometimes we're really overstretching ourselves, so we've told ourselves to cut down,' says Mr Ong Keng Yong.

Mindful of the need not to alienate its older members, the PA has to do a balancing act of being all things to all men. It holds, among many other activities, karaoke classes for senior citizens, computer classes for working adults and drawing classes for children.

But why over-extend itself when people are now capable and have the resources to form their own groups?

The career civil servant says: 'Such groups tend to be very polarised. They keep to themselves. It comes back to the original role of the PA - to get people to mix.'

He believes the PA's integration role will become even more important as citizens are tempted increasingly towards 'bowling alone'.

Harvard University don Robert Putnam used the term in a book published in 2000 to describe the phenomenon of Americans leaving traditional community organisations, such as the Rotarians and the Red Cross, in droves.

The 'weight of available evidence confirms that Americans today are significantly less engaged with their communities than was true a generation ago,' he said.

What they were doing with their time instead was joining other, much smaller groups such as meditation and music clubs.

Singapore seems to be headed for the same phenomenon. But Ms Yap, who is also an Aware executive committee member, does not believe that this is a reason for pessimism.

'Young people tend to prefer to focus their energies on specific projects. If they really like the topic, they'll do all they can to do it well. But don't expect them to join a society for life. Few would,' she says.

Prof Chua agrees. 'It's healthy, if you look at it from a liberal perspective. People are not apathetic; people are willing to get involved.'