I had my first experience in voting.
My first democratic experience! Wow... But nope, it's not for Singapore's elections but to express interest to re-build my church.

Like many political elections, questions came rapidly and emotions ran high during the Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM).

I sat there to listen and like many responsible voters, tried my very best to not allow emotions or attachments cloud my objective decision.

As I was sitting there in the church's EOGM, I began to think of the government's stance to only allow citizens who are 21 years old and above to participate in elections. I know some young people have been fighting for their rights to vote when they turn 18. At 18, some are ready to give their say in certain decision-making and are eager to be politically active.

When I read that some young people are requesting to vote at 18, I was like, yes, we should allow that!

But having gone through that voting process just this Sunday, I realised that if I were to given the right to vote at 18, I would probably be overwhelmed with all the emotions, tried to be idealistic or rebellious, just so to stand out.

I believe that at 18, when you are still relatively fresh out of secondary school, you are still not inculcated by Singapore's education to vote responsibly. Most of the time, you just learn how to be exams-savvy during your secondary school education and not on how to be a politcally active with the right motives.

At 21, I would say that I am more knowledgeable about elections and certainly more mature to make a responsible vote. I do not go with the flow, nor do I try to be rebellious just to be different. All I want is to make an informed decision in my voting.

Then again, I know at 21, not everyone is still mature to make a responsible vote. Think about it, even those who are 60, may not be able to do that as well.

However, delaying the right to vote would probably do more good than to have a whole bunch of idealistic 18 year-old young people, still fresh out of secondary school, upsetting a responsible democracy.

Well, moving away from that, I feel that voting in a church is slightly different from say, voting in a corporation or in the public arena. For one, voting in church requires faith.

We do not vote just because we are convinced by what the human authorities say is good/right.

For me, I vote because I hear God telling me what to do. It requires an element of faith and what I call, a godly rebellion.

Just when everyone tells you that you ought to do this and do that, I choose not to follow what they say and thus, go with the flow, but to follow only what God says.

Some say democracy can be a curse because only the most popular choice is selected but it may not be the BEST choice.

But I say, a democracy in a church, if it has godly, active members, can select the BEST choice that a church ought to make.