Mind wars
PAP blogs back
Shortly it will launch its own political website that could end the
role of newspapers as the official messenger - and that won’t be a
bad thing. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Apr 11, 2009
THIS fast growing city is set to become an even more exciting
place.
The location to watch is the blogosphere, which will become a new
political arena after Government launches a web offensive within
the next few weeks to retake lost ground.
Exactly what it will do is not clear, but it will probably centre
on the use of various forums and chat-sites to put across its views
in a place that has been dominated by critics.
An existing popular website will be revamped to feature a
“no-holds-barred” forum and articles written by activists.
The battle lines are being formed on both sides.
It will herald a new era of diversity – or even divisiveness –
in Singapore,
where already a third of its 4.68 million people are
foreigners who arrived with their own array of
languages and cultures.
I do not see an “anything goes” website for free political
discussions (if it happens) not having a spreading impact on the
mainstream media.
It could result eventually in a freer atmosphere for the
pro-government newspapers, which are globally ranked very poorly
for credibility.
“It will no longer make sense to ban the press from reporting on
issues that are freely talked about even on government websites,”
rationalised a retired journalist.
“If that happens,
the double standard will for sure kill off the newspapers,” he
added.
Coming this year, the new strategy is symbolic.
In June, the People’s Action Party (PAP) will reach a historic
landmark - governing Singapore for 50 years.
It is a record that few ruling parties in the world, where
elections are held, can claim.
PAP - loser by default
Winning the Internet war is crucial for the PAP’s survival. So far
it has been losing it by default.
During the past decade, many young Singaporeans who believed the
newspapers were a government mouthpiece
spinning out propaganda have been turning to the web for
information.
A disenchanted ‘sub-culture’
This rising number of cynical youths has, in effect, created a
sub-community in Singapore society which has turned off reading
newspapers or listening to what the political leaders say.
They spend a great deal of time communicating with each other on
the web, relying on and reinforcing each other’s views.
For the ruling party, these are the lost sheep. They include many
of the better-educated, the successful and professionals.
Some are studying in – or have studied from – top universities
abroad and could become future leaders. They make up a big part of
the intellectuals.
"Win them back" strategy
“The PAP has to win back this sub-community of young people or lose
the future,” said a business consultant. This new online strategy
is part of that answer.
As many as two-thirds of Singaporeans in their 20s either blog or
participate in online forums; blogging is also common among the 30s
and 40s set.
While the PAP Youth Wing is responsible for spearheading the web
offensive, it is the Ministry of Information and the Arts (MICA),
that is the focal point.
How far will it allow the websites to go before censoring
things?
During the early years, a perception about the Information
Ministry’s work was that of a group of bureaucrats sitting around a
table measuring - with a ruler - the amount of opposition newspaper
coverage.
There was, of course, more important work, but censorship was never
far from its duties when then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was
ruling with a rigid force.
Whenever elections rolled around, word had it the bureaucrats were
hard at work ensuring that opposition candidates did not get too
much press coverage.
If they did, the reporter or editor could get an earful of
uncomplimentary remarks.
That was, of course, before Lee’s successors, including the present
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, began to soften the process – and,
of course, before the Internet’s arrival.
Today the Ministry is still in the business of press censorship,
but a schoolboy’s ruler is no longer needed.
The new digital media can neither be measured nor controlled in the
same manner.
On April 1, a 48-year-old former navy chief took over as Minister
for Information and the Arts, a new job that could reshape how the
post-Lee Kuan Yew government will bond with its citizens.
For Mr Lui Tuck Yew, 48, the task is not an easy one. He could, for
example, spoil the party by coming down hard whenever criticisms
become too strong especially during campaigning.
Opposition dilemma, too
The Net as a political tool is not only a problem for the ageing
PAP leaders who know little about it, but also for those in the
opposition as well.
Apart from their own official websites, few of them – unlike the
opposition in Malaysia – operate a site to talk with
Singaporeans.
In fact, the Workers Party has even
forbidden its executive committee members from using their party
positions when posting messages for fear of being
sued.
So far the big bulk of the speaking out process has come mostly
from bloggers and not the main opposition parties.
Will the PAP plan work?
It depends on how free its own activists are allowed to talk about
policies. The web is just another channel of communication.
“If it’s used to
put out the same propaganda as in the controlled press, then it
will fail,” said a critic. Others merely shrug it
off.
“Whatever politics is uttered on the Net, nothing will change in
the real world.
“With all the
uneven rules in place, only half the voters will have a chance to
vote, the PAP will win another Parliament landslide – and people
will go on condemning it,” the critic said.
http://www.littlespeck.com/content/politics/CTrendsPolitics-090411.htm
