The Workers’ Party on Wednesday (March 11) shared a video clip of Non-constituency Member of Parliament Daniel Goh’s recent Parliamentary speech on its Facebook page. The video clip featured Mr Goh urging the Government to effectively address the increase in youth mental health issues.
https://www.facebook.com/workersparty/videos/519429402047585/?__xts__[0]=68.ARAp5qfcsS8KnkfKSW4oh_0YeMMr-jLEXcUJdI92rybs6SCGEYTsTkS_CJBrk1c4h2lCkGWERGjbCgXrKluG_WaJU8YovwT_ubtYw7C_XCW7K7ytCpp6k3eReTI7tegamlJC9YjHxZ1bHhR3__SmwPrzmwAnE2jMY8w9Aw_yl52S0lEftM6aOAbssbBrkVyfgRicIKf2w_nKzTWlVkHa1r4sm2R5mUj5_HKqV7SkrwBY1YGkw3rw5x91lzqhUIGKQuJGLlfqv2YV_aDdX1YKZZ6y3dQyCuAI5tfvvytgyyS2H_-Xaahr5Ms4j-bbtXQy5LSFz_CiJ4cz08Zd_UctIjXwO_JMEQPZSqwaFg&__tn__=-R
According to a recent report by Today Online, the Government is on the lookout for ideas to help the youth overcome the challenges to mental health given the rise of mental and emotional stress in such a fast-paced society.
Mr Goh stressed the importance of educating the youth on mental health, saying “(Mental) health education should be a top priority and made mandatory.” With this, he urged the Ministry of Education to increase its efforts to educate students on the matter and make it a subject all its own. “It should not just be a topic in character and citizenship education or during the form teacher guidance period,” he argued, “but a subject in its own right in secondary schools, in which basic psychological knowledge can also be imparted, so that young people can have the tools to understand what they might be going through.”
Mr Goh said that doing so would aid not only in raising much-needed awareness on the issue, but also in countering and addressing the misconception, discrimination, and ignorance encapsulating crucial issues such as mental health.
However, given the sense of urgency behind Mr Goh’s message as well as the social relevance of such an endeavour, netizens pointed out that in a brief segment at the beginning of the video clip, the house of Parliament seemed to be almost empty. In the comments section of the WP’s post, some netizens questioned why there was a discrepancy between the relevance of the matter at hand and the Parliamentary attendance.
Commenters called out what they saw as a lack of respect. One Facebook user by the name of Ng Toto even asked if the “PAP (would) care to answer?” Another by the name of Joo Wee brought up how much Singaporean taxpayers pay their government officials, and said, “(D)on’t waste the taxpapers’ money,” as he pointed out all the empty seats.
One netizen Daniel Lo said that Parliament has gone “from bad to worse,” now that Singaporean founding Father Lee Kuan Yew is no longer around. “During those…days, Parliament (was) always full house. No(w) (it’s an) empty house,” he said.
