After volunteering with the Scouts for over a decade, it's time for me to close this chapter. Here's why.
Increased Politicization
It started with the office of the Chief Commissioner of Singapore Scouts being granted a seat on the People's Association's board. There is lots of debate out there on whether the PA is political or non-partisan and I won't delve deeper. I guess being part of the PA family means top Scout awards are now presented by grassroot leaders similar to how it's done for Edusave awards.
Eventually, it progressed into a direct partnership with PAP Community Foundation to launch a new programme. PCF is undisputably directly linked to the PAP political party. It would have been more appropriate to partner with MOE Kindergarten which is government run and not party linked.
Article 1 of the Constitution of the World Organization of Scout Movement dictates that scouting is a "non-political educational movement". There is good reason for that. Politics and religion are hugely divisive and polarizing, thus most companies and interest groups do have ground rules to ensure a non-political and secular environment for their members to maintain harmony, productivity and inclusivity.
Deterioration of skills
There is no free lunch. Partnering with organizations means you need to pander to their interests as well. The First Aid Badge got replaced by the PA Community Emergency Preparedness Badge. Attaining higher tiers requires additional hours of service instead of the acquisition of more advanced first aid skills (e.g. wilderness first aid). Understandably, PA requires lots of volunteers for their events but this comes at a cost of our youth's education. Giving them the opportunity to learn more advanced knowledge instead of just learning about SGSecure can likely help them decide whether to apply for nursing or medical school.
Likewise, some scholar probably wrote MPA's Maritime Singapore Decarbonisation Blueprint and is extremely proud of his work and wants everyone to read about it. However, an introduction to charting, COLREGS or SOLAS would be a lot more helpful to someone who's considering a career in the actual maritime industry.
Party Worship
Instead of putting our youths in challenging or uncomfortable situations to build resilience and character or developing skills for their future, the direction from leadership seem to be more engaged in party worship.
In the short span of 2 months, a total of 5 Ministers/MPs were featured as the cover image on their social media posts. The last post is the most puzzling since the Minister getting on the Time 100 Climate list seems to have nothing to do with the Scouts. I don't know if youths are at the centre of what we do, or if Ministers are instead.
The modus operandi seems to be attend PA events, or organize some simple low effort event like a fireside chat, dialogue session, award ceremony as an excuse to invite a Minister. I'm not sure what's the end game. True fame and respect come from your own talent, hard work, and what you actually accomplish. You don't become famous by taking lots of photos with famous people.
Their current direction is no different from a K-pop idol chasing group.
Changing Demographics
When choosing which CCA to join, youths will definitely look at social media, CCA fairs and other avenues to understand what activities they would have the opportunity to undertake if they decide to join Scouts.
Youths who are interested in the outdoors, adventure, hiking and so on would have considered Scouts in the past may now turn to an alternative uniform group or ODAC. Scouts are now attracting a different demographic looking for the opportunity to engage or have a photo taken with Ministers and MPs.
This probably explains what I believe to be a dismal partipation rate in outdoor activities. We had less than 500 local youth participants in SG60SIJ in 2025 compared to more than 1000 local youth participants in SG50SIJ in 2015. We have less than 10 youth participants in 15th Malaysia National Jamboree in 2026 compared to a bus load of close to 40 participants in 12th Malaysia National Jamboree in 2015.
I simply have no interest in volunteering my time to serve this new demographic of clout chasers.