Rafflesian Times TEST Issue 1 | Page 40

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Black Holes and Revelations
The problem is that in the eyes of the student body , the impact of the things they do is not equal to the vaunted method of their selection
significant or meaningful way . It is our suspicion that students would take the election process a lot more seriously if those elected would wield actual political power .
Rafflesian Times
40
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YOLO is slang for ‘ You Only Live Once ’ which is used to indicate something exciting , usually in relation to an excuse for irresponsible behavior
Elections
If we are to be completely honest , it must be said straight from the outset that student democracy in RI is not student government . In fact , if democratic government is to be our metaphor , then the Prefectorial Board and Students ’ Council are rather more like civil servants than politicians . Doubtlessly , they perform several integral functions , and many councillors and prefects serve the student body with dedication and humility . The problem is that in the eyes of the student body , the impact of the things they do is not equal to the vaunted method of their selection — in other words , electoral processes only work to find the best candidates when people genuinely care about whether or not those elected will do a good job , and the work councillors and prefects do is underrated because it doesn ’ t seem as though it will enable them to change school life in any
Many confessors fulminating about the reduction of the democratic exercise to a mere popularity contest were clearly thinking along the same lines . Confessions such as ‘ it ’ s quite sad to see council elections being turned into a massive popularity contest ” and “ the only way to win vote is through style , not substance ” reflected worries that electing school leaders was an exercise in futility .
At least on the Y1 – 4 side , it also seems that being a prefect is no guarantee of meritorious behaviour ( perhaps this can be explained as the general mischief and immaturity of younger students as a whole ). One confessor , who submitted the confession : ‘ Cheating together with school prefects . YOLO 2 ’ attracted the condemnation of many . Upon a quick inspection of the confessions page , this was clearly not an isolated incident , as confessions like ‘ prefects should just stop breaking the school rules ’ and ‘ the prefects in my class play with their handphones during lessons and sleep during class ’ regularly surface on its Facebook wall .