By Li Xueying - Feb 3, 2007
The Straits Times
THE People's Action Party (PAP) is mounting a quiet
counter-insurgency against its online critics. It has members going
into Internet forums and blogs to rebut anti-establishment views
and putting up postings anonymously.
Sources told The Straits Times the initiative is driven by two
sub-committees of the PAP's 'new media' committee chaired by
Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen.
One sub-committee, co-headed by Minister of State (Education) Lui
Tuck Yew and Hong Kah GRC MP Zaqy Mohamad, strategises the
campaign.
The other is led by Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Baey Yam Keng and
Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Josephine Teo. Called the 'new media
capabilities group', it executes the strategies. Both were set up
after last year's General Election. Aside from politicians, some 20
IT-savvy party activists are also involved.
When contacted, Mr Baey declined to give details of the group's
activities, but he outlined the broad principles of the
initiative.
It was necessary for the PAP to have a voice in cyberspace as there
were few in the online community who were pro-establishment, he
said.
As such, the committees aim to 'observe how new media is developing
and see how we can use the new media as part of the overall media
landscape', he added.
'How do we facilitate views that are pro-party and propagate them
through the Internet?'
The approach reflects comments by Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui at the
PAP's party conference in December. He called on younger activists
to put up views 'to moderate the vitriol and balance the skewed
comments' on the Internet.
But this can only work if activists are not 'too obvious' about it,
Mr Baey said yesterday. Otherwise it comes across as
'propaganda'.
'The identity is not important. It is the message that is
important,' he added.
One activist who is involved said that when posting comments on
online forums and the feedback boxes of blogs, he does not identify
himself as a PAP member.
He tracks popular blogs and forums to 'see if there is anything we
can clarify' on hot-button topics such as the impending hike in the
Goods and Services Tax.
But he added: 'We don't rebut everything. Sometimes, what is said
is fair enough, and we send the feedback on to the
committee.'
This latest initiative comes on top of a blog site with posts by 12
MPs born after Singapore's Independence in 1965.
It recognises that more younger Singaporeans are relying on the new
media as a main source of information.
An Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) study conducted last year
found that younger and better-educated Singaporeans relied on
information from the Internet when shaping their voting choices at
the last GE.
Among the opposition parties, members and supporters of the
Workers' Party, in particular, post regularly on forums
online.
But IPS senior research fellow Tan Tarn How wonders about the
effectiveness of the PAP's campaign.
He said Internet users who post on forums such as Sammyboy tend not
to be interested in 'intellectual debate' and so will not be
persuaded by PAP activists anyway. As for more serious-minded
bloggers, he said the views that the activists may put out are
already available in the mainstream media.
