The government must be appalled and disturbed by the rising anti-establishment sentiment in cyberspace. Not a day passed in Singapore’s boisterous chatrooms without a PAP leader or policy being attacked and ridiculed.
While I applaud the government for keeping its promise to adopt a “light-touch” approach towards the internet and allow the online community to self-regulate themselves, the recent furore over the Tan Yong Soon and Seng Han Thong debacles which were partly sparked off by bloggers and netizens showed that the government need to do much more to engage the online community.
Singapore has one of the highest internet penetration rate in the world at 85%. Netizens are comprised chiefly of young IT-savvy students and professionals and this will form a powerful voting bloc in future elections. These group of voters are not beholdened to the PAP like their parents and will not hesitate to cast a protest vote against the ruling party should they think that their concerns are not addressed adequately by the government.
The government need only look across the Causeway to see for themselves the impact Malaysia’s bloggers have made on the political landscape. Frequently brushed off as “pests” and ignored by the Malaysian government, these political bloggers as epitomized by the example of Raja Petra Kamarrudin of Malaysia Today have gained sufficient clout through their writings to have a say in national affairs, surpassing even the elected leaders in terms of respect and credibility.
Read rest of article here:
http://wayangparty.com/?p=5013
While I applaud the government for keeping its promise to adopt a “light-touch” approach towards the internet and allow the online community to self-regulate themselves, the recent furore over the Tan Yong Soon and Seng Han Thong debacles which were partly sparked off by bloggers and netizens showed that the government need to do much more to engage the online community.
Singapore has one of the highest internet penetration rate in the world at 85%. Netizens are comprised chiefly of young IT-savvy students and professionals and this will form a powerful voting bloc in future elections. These group of voters are not beholdened to the PAP like their parents and will not hesitate to cast a protest vote against the ruling party should they think that their concerns are not addressed adequately by the government.
The government need only look across the Causeway to see for themselves the impact Malaysia’s bloggers have made on the political landscape. Frequently brushed off as “pests” and ignored by the Malaysian government, these political bloggers as epitomized by the example of Raja Petra Kamarrudin of Malaysia Today have gained sufficient clout through their writings to have a say in national affairs, surpassing even the elected leaders in terms of respect and credibility.
Read rest of article here:
http://wayangparty.com/?p=5013
