SINGAPORE: Leaders from China and Singapore agree
that governments need to maintain high levels of trust with their
people in order to counter false information spread
online.
The comments came at the Third China-Singapore Forum
on Leadership in the Age of New Media.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong launched
his Facebook page in April and has reached some 50,000 likes so
far.
It's the latest move by a Singapore leader to establish a presence
and reach out to citizens in the new media arena.
And this is necessary, according to Singapore's Deputy Prime
Minister Teo Chee Hean, who's in Beijing to co-chair the third
China-Singapore Forum on Leadership in the Age of New Media.
Speaking to an audience mainly made up of Chinese public
officers-in-training, Mr Teo said trust needs to be kept between
government and people, to act against falsehoods posted
online.
"A new reality can also quickly develop if the posts, whether true
or not, touch on sensitive issues that can spark retaliation, or
mass disorder. Governments therefore need to be able to sense what
is happening on the Internet quickly and to respond, often sooner
than they might otherwise like," Mr Teo shared.
China and Singapore have experienced how new media is shaping the
way information is being conveyed to the public.
Singapore saw the Internet play a more pronounced role in last
year's General Election when opposition parties used it to reach
out to voters.
And China recently saw how Twitter became the avenue for supporters
of dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng to rally support for his
release.
Minister of the Organisation Department, Communist Party of China,
Li Yuanchao said: "Some of our leaders and agencies are still at a
stage where they're not familiar with new media, they over-react
and over-prevent instead of engaging. So when it comes to public
service and attitude towards new media, we have made it key for
public service cadres to strengthen their leadership skills under
this new media environment."
And according to leaders from both countries at the forum, what
this also means for governments and public officers in both China
and Singapore, is that they'll now have to be better-trained to be
more sensitive to what the people want and be more thoughtful in
how they communicate with the people.
- CNA/ck
