<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Feb 28, 2009
ENGAGING THE NEW MEDIA
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Govt must pick its battles on the Net
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MORE than a decade after the Internet has entered our lives, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is talking up the 'new media' for the next General Election.
'New media' has long been staple media, so much so that today's 'traditional media' would probably collapse if its journalists did not have the Internet.
The PM's recent interview with Channel NewsAsia displayed his awareness of the Internet factor in the United States and Malaysia elections last year.
US President Barack Obama harnessed the technology to raise funds. He romanced a tech-savvy generation by being clued into a platform intimate to them.
In Malaysia, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's coalition used the Net as an alternative news source, delivering the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) its worst electoral blow since independence.
By acknowledging the Internet as an election fighting ground, PM Lee has changed the political paradigm and will have to accept that at least one glove will be off in online debates.
It is a move borne out of the necessity of the changing times. It is the move of a leader in touch with trends and readying his troops for reality.
Any attempt to silence or persecute the alternative voices online will undermine the Government's sincerity to engage on this platform.
Yes, there are fools online. There are also many posters with considered opinions, as well as a whole spectrum in between.
The last thing the Government needs to do is to attempt to draw the line between what is acceptable and what is not.
It can do that on other hunting grounds, but not the Internet if it wants to stay credible.
That is the nature of the beast.
The strategy should be to pick its fights with posters who make sense - even if highly critical - and offer the fools dignified silence.
Responses must be comprehensive and not patronising.
The willingness to engage and respond will determine if the Government's Internet electoral campaign is a success.
That the People's Action Party will continue as the Government beyond the next election is almost a given.
But how it performs in the possibly lawless extremes of the Internet will indicate how much the Government has changed in dealing with alternative public discourse.
Young and capable Singaporeans - exposed to a global village brought about largely by the 'new media' - are sophisticated and opinionated.
Only when they can see that politics is tolerant of different views, will more people step up to serve.
Chan Tau Chou
ENGAGING THE NEW MEDIA
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Govt must pick its battles on the Net
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MORE than a decade after the Internet has entered our lives, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is talking up the 'new media' for the next General Election.
'New media' has long been staple media, so much so that today's 'traditional media' would probably collapse if its journalists did not have the Internet.
The PM's recent interview with Channel NewsAsia displayed his awareness of the Internet factor in the United States and Malaysia elections last year.
US President Barack Obama harnessed the technology to raise funds. He romanced a tech-savvy generation by being clued into a platform intimate to them.
In Malaysia, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's coalition used the Net as an alternative news source, delivering the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) its worst electoral blow since independence.
By acknowledging the Internet as an election fighting ground, PM Lee has changed the political paradigm and will have to accept that at least one glove will be off in online debates.
It is a move borne out of the necessity of the changing times. It is the move of a leader in touch with trends and readying his troops for reality.
Any attempt to silence or persecute the alternative voices online will undermine the Government's sincerity to engage on this platform.
Yes, there are fools online. There are also many posters with considered opinions, as well as a whole spectrum in between.
The last thing the Government needs to do is to attempt to draw the line between what is acceptable and what is not.
It can do that on other hunting grounds, but not the Internet if it wants to stay credible.
That is the nature of the beast.
The strategy should be to pick its fights with posters who make sense - even if highly critical - and offer the fools dignified silence.
Responses must be comprehensive and not patronising.
The willingness to engage and respond will determine if the Government's Internet electoral campaign is a success.
That the People's Action Party will continue as the Government beyond the next election is almost a given.
But how it performs in the possibly lawless extremes of the Internet will indicate how much the Government has changed in dealing with alternative public discourse.
Young and capable Singaporeans - exposed to a global village brought about largely by the 'new media' - are sophisticated and opinionated.
Only when they can see that politics is tolerant of different views, will more people step up to serve.
Chan Tau Chou
