February 20, 2010
According to a Straits Times report today, the PAP MPs are
jumping onto the Facebook bandwagon to reach out to young
Singaporeans.
41 of the 81 PAP MPs are on Facebook and they include Deputy
Prime Ministers Wong Kan Seng and Teo Chee Hean, and Ministers
George Yeo, Yaacob Ibrahim, Vivian Balakrishnan and Lim Hwee
Hua.
Embarrassed by the utter failure of YPAP to engage the online
community, the state media has been tasked again to salvage the
battered image of the PAP MPs in the eyes of young
Singaporeans.
The YPAP was embroiled in a controversy of late when its member
Eric How made a police report over a non-existent impersonation on
Facebook under the “advice” of its Chairman Teo Ser Luck which
exposed his complete ignorance of the New Media.
Though the PAP has set up an internet subcommittee way back in
2006 to win the hearts and minds of young Singaporeans, it has few
results to show, if any.
The P65 blog run by PAP MPs floundered due to lack of readership
and is now handed over to be managed entirely by YPAP members with
the same dismal results.
Its Facebook has less members than a Facebook set up to vote out
the YPAP only two months ago. None of its party websites have a
readership large enough to establish a presence in cyberspace.
Netizens should not be fooled by the latest lame attempt by the
PAP to win their votes ahead of the next general election.
As Foreign Minister George Yeo has demonstrated aptly, their
Facebooks are nothing more but “wayang” to promote themselves and
they will never dare to engage in serious discussion and debate on
current affairs and national policies.
SDP Secretary-General Dr Chee Soon Juan had invited George Yeo
for a debate several times on his Facebook and was turned away. A
young lady seeking help for a molest case was told by him curtly to
see her MP instead.
No matter how they tried, nothing will ever change so long the
PAP retains its two-thirds majority in Parliament and continues to
rule the country with an iron fist.
The best way to “engage” the PAP is to vote them out in the next
election and only then will they bother to listen to the genuine
concerns and worries of Singaporeans.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/02/20/more-pap-mps-on-facebook-to-reach-out-to-young-singaporeans/
