Is the opposition giving the new media a miss?
February 17th, 2010 | 
Author: OPINION
In the aftermath of the “Eric How” fiasco which invited widespread ridicule and derision from netizens, the YPAP appeared to have “retreated” from the New Media for the time-being with its members keeping a low profile on both the YPAP Facebook and the P65 blog.
Unfortunately, the opposition seems equally clueless about the New Media as well and has done little to utilize it fully to engage young Singaporeans.
With the exception of the SDP website, the other opposition websites all suffer from a poor readership like the PAP’s. Few opposition leaders bother to maintain a blog or Facebook.
If one goes to the streets and ask 10 young Singaporeans if they have heard of “Kenneth Jeyaretnam”, “Desmond Lim”, “Justin Ong” or “Hazel Poa”, chances are, they will not be aware of their existence.
Can they expect young Singaporeans to cast their votes for them on polling day?
In today’s internet age, a blog is a must-have of every politician who has to prove to voters that he/she deserves their votes, especially with more and more IT-savvy Singaporeans joining the electorate each year.
To focus solely on grassroots work while ignoring public sentiments in cyberspace is tantamount to throwing away precious votes which can be easily courted via a blog.
Through the amount of effort an aspiring politician put into his/her blog, voters can assess how much dedication, sincerity and passion he/she has in serving them.
A simple blog which is updated frequently can achieve the following:
1. Raise the profile of the politician.
2. Establishes rapport with the voters directly.
3. Understand their concerns, fears and worries.
4. Publicizing one’s views and stance on current affairs.
5. To garner precious resources such as donations and volunteers.
A well-run and widely read blog is winning half the battle even before the election is called.
For the purpose of illustration, we shall study the internet strategy employed by the Malaysian opposition party Democratic Action Party (DAP) which began in 2006, 2 years before the 2008 Malaysian general election.
DAP had seen an influx of young graduates and professionals into its ranks who managed to persuade the Old Guards to employ the New Media as a medium to reach out to the electorate.
Like Singapore, the Malaysian mainstream media is blatantly biased towards the opposition, especially DAP which is often demonized as a “racist” party by the Malay newspapers.
One of the first steps taken by DAP leaders was to embrace the New Media whole-heartedly by making every CEC member start a blog including 68 year old opposition leader Lim Kit Siang:
http://dapmalaysia.org/newenglish/ta_dap_blog.htm
Lim is both the state assemblyman and MP for the constituency of Ipoh Timur in Perak, which is larger than Singapore itself and yet he can find time to update his blog at least once a day.
Not surprisingly, his blog is one of the highest read political blogs in Malaysia. He does not need the mainstream media to carry his views anymore and in fact, they have to read his blog to get the latest updates about him!
Besides key leaders, young candidates-to-be are expected to run their own blogs to engage with young voters. Examples of new DAP faces fielded in the 2008 elections are Tony Pua, Liew Chin Tong and Jernice Lee, all of whom maintain personal blogs which are updated frequently.
Though they were never given any publicity by the mainstream press, young Malaysian voters were already very familiar with them by the time the election was called and they threw their support behind them.
All three won by overwhelming margins in their maiden elections, including Tony Pua who defeated MCA stalwart Chew Mei Fun her stronghold of Petaling Jaya.
Their victories are not “freak” results. It was achieved painstakingly not only through sheer hard work by meeting the residents in the constituencies weekly, but updating their blogs on an almost daily basis. They have demonstrated their sincerity and desire to serve their nation to the people way before the elections, but what about our opposition candidates?
Do Singaporeans wish to cast their votes for candidates who appear out of the blue on the eve of the election or will they vote for somebody whom they are already familiar with?
The opposition should not wait for the mainstream media to give their fresh candidates some token publicity on nomination day. It is time to kick-start the election campaign right now through the New Media so that young voters already know who they are by then.
Take the example of Singapore People’s Party’s Alex Tan. Though the mainstream media has tried to portray him in a negative light, he has managed to neutralize it cleverly by taking his battle to cyberspace.
The “Vote PAP out” Facebook which he set up has garnered more than 3,100 members in less than two months. He posts on the Facebook daily and interact with netizens. If he were to contest in a single ward in the next election against an unknown new PAP candidate, who do you think young Singaporeans will vote for?
Opposition candidates must not shy from the limelight or they should not even be in politics in the first place! Since they are going to be made public figures anyway when their candidacies are announced on nomination day, why not make themselves known earlier?
Every new opposition candidate should emulate the example of Alex Tan – set up a blog and Facebook and start telling the whole of Singapore what their views are on issues like immigration, housing policies, education, national service etc.
The New Media remains the opposition’s best weapon against the giant propaganda machinery of the PAP. The battle for the hearts and minds of Singaporeans starts now. There is no more time to lose.
Posted in Opinion
actually, there is another well-known opposition politician, Goh Meng Seng reaching out through his blog since 2005 (not sure whether he is the pioneer) He is also using facebook to reach out too.
Here is his blog http://singaporealternatives.blogspot.com/
his articles are well-organised and rational and his recent rebuttal to zaobao’s forum writer on opposition being “opportunistic” has been published in zaobao forum for the first time,if i am not wrong. i congratulate him for piercing the thick hide of PAP and MSM.
recently,sylvia lim also started a blog (though not so frequently updated as Goh), she also has twitter.
opposition like KJ,tony tan,desmond lim,tan kian hwee has reached out thro facebook, KJ is the more active participant.
each party also has facebook and twitter account.
so,i don’t think that opposition is giving new media a miss, it’s just that not all are active on it.
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Perhaps TR should send this article to all the opposition parties to give them a big nudge, and a big wake up call.
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apart from SDP’s website? what makes you say that?
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You do realise that DAP is the splinter wing of PAP.
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The opposition party is very careful because if they say the wrong thing online, the PAP will use it on polling day and bash the opposition. This is detrimental to the opposition.
The news blog should reach out to feature the opposition and hold live forum to meet both online as well as real people. Anyway the online citizen is doing a good job at that and once a while they feature opposition candidates and organize forum.
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Goh M S’s blog is a good one to read and he is also a potential opposition leader,I will support him.
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Exactly – what exactly likes of Kenneth Jeyaretnam doing? Why they are not exploiting issues like Rony Tan to get visibility and also make their stand clear? If they wake up just before election – it is too late.
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The opposition, ‘no picture no sound’ a week before polling time n after election.
Only see them during the week b4 election.
I think they only aiming for the 200K-plus bucks annual MP salary.
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In this internet age, voters chase accountability into the office of governance. Staying on the sideline leaves the incumbent that exclusive burden of policy explanation and accounting which they cannot even perform in the controlled MSM with all their lies, deception and misinformation. The incumbent is having to face up with us “against the whole world of wisdom” proving their endless wrongs and hypocrisies.
Why detract public attention from all these when contributions in various alternative media are already doing a nice job of efficient demolition?
Better still if the war is won on election day without any battle be fought with the incumbent in cyberspace. The ruling party is already falling incessantly on their own swords of repeatedly caught “off guard” and policy spins and super fast turnaround (ESC for example) without having the Opposition adding to those self-inflicted wounds.
I think the Opposition’s current low profile strategy is correct. People vote on issues – PLENTY OF BIG ONES NOW TO ANTAGONISE VOTERS, not who the politician/s is or are, except when the incumbent messed it up big-time. It is during the election rallies that voters get a face recognition of who they are voting for.
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Opposition are no different from the many Sinkaporeans.
They are AFRAID, SCEPTICAL and SELFISH.
Extend help and they suspect you got hidden agenda, associate with TR and afraid gahment send in ISD. Tell them to join forces, they fight over who should be the leader.
* sigh *
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Giving new media a miss is as well as giving up a unique competitive advantage that even PAP do not have…
What i suspect is that there are some old guards in the opposition camp who is afraid to lose power in should they allow younger party member embrace new media
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Sinkapore,
Hahahahaha… The reality of Singaporeans… the daft, the kiasi, the petty crumbs-diggers.
That’s the reality which is why the current elements on the tables are pretty expendable.
What about you? Ain’t you sceptical, selfish and afraid? Hehehehehehehe~
Heheheheheheheheheheeeeeeeeeeee~
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@anonymous, I agree with you AGAIN.
Why should the opposition bother to repeat the same things that TR have been repeating daily and in the process open themselves to PERSECUTION?
Since TR and TOC the likes are already doing a good job, Opposition can spend more time working out the HOW and WHEN instead of getting themselves DETAINED, SUED and BANKRUPTED.
In the context of Sinkapore and for the better good, TR and TOC are EXPANDABLE compared to the opposition who are better kept ’safe; until Election Day.
My take I supposed is for sites like TR and TOC to constantly expose and remind Sinkaporeans on issues that matters, doing the job for the Opposition, taking the heat for them while the Opposition stays ’safe’ to contest when GE is due.
@Elfred, I ADMIT I am afraid, very afraid, which is why I am NOT in Sinkapore and QUITed long long time ago knowing give Sinkapore another 100 years, they will still be unable to change anything.
Sometimes, one must learn to 100% give up when there is ABSOLUTELY NO HOPE of changes.
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The opposition are active online and have been addressing the issues we netizens are talking about.
The only question is, do we even bother to find out before saying they are not doing anything?
As mentioned earlier, many oppositions are maintaining blogs :
Goh Meng Seng (Sec-Gen of NSP)
Sylvia Lim (Chairman of WP)
Chee Siok Chin (CEC member of SDP)
Yaw Shin Leong (Chairman of WP youth Wing)
to name a few.
There are also many opposition members who are not that famous who maintain blogs.
On top of that, there are also ex-opposition members or opposition-aligned members like Chia Ti Lik who also have blogs.
Finally, some bloggers, like Alex Tan also joined the opposition.
So we cannot say that the opposition do not used the new media. It’s more like we voters did not use the new media to reach out to the opposition members.
Having alternative parties in Singapore is a two-way street. We cannot expect to have alternative parties if we do not support them in the first place.
There ar
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Its too early to let the Cat out of the bag.
Why open yourself to Uncle Pape to study your “points or views”, when election is so …not clear as to when.
Don’t you all know Uncle Pape ,dirty tricks ???
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I am pretty sure the youth of Singapore are more well informed and more tech savvy than their counterparts in Malaysia and keep abreast of political events unfolding in other democratic countries such as USA and Australia.
Due to the ideological nature of the opposition and the government in Malaysia, they tend to filter out political stories in the developed democratic world that would be disadvantageous to them. And I am not sure that Malaysian youth are aware of such stories, such as who Mr Scott Brown is and what he has accomplished. Bipartisanship does not exist in the Malaysian dictionary btw.
I believe the political tsunami 2008 was definitely not achieved by young voters alone, many older voters (who are not plugged in) also voted for the opposition via viral marketing such as SMS. Also in the backdrop is always the specter of racial and religious politics.
The political landscape in Singapore is different, no party can run on a racial platform (either openly or otherwise). Bread and butter issues are very important to anyone younger than 50; nevertheless the political parties that emphasize these issues seem unable to come with any solutions themselves. The electorate is more sophisticated as well; you cannot pull the wool over a 98% internet connected nation.
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What? What are you talking about?
Even an Old Fart like me has a fan-page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lee-Kuan-Yew/343839138711?v=wall#!/pages/Lee-Kuan-Yew/343839138711?v=info
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@ Sinkapore on Wed, 17th Feb 2010 6:52 pm
“….. Sometimes, one must learn to 100% give up when there is ABSOLUTELY NO HOPE of changes.”
then why are u still so active here? I read quite a numbers of your comments on various threads. u actually help pointed out somethings in the past (if i am not wrong, u were XisD, right?) and i appreciate that.
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Hi Sinkapore,
to add on and i hope we all should be more optimistic, though the path to true democracy is long and tough here, but i think the post emperor era will be a turning point.
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IF they are all like TR, ya we are giving it a miss..
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i agree with one of the posts that says what is missing is a united opposition..what have the opposition pressed for in the past months? any release of a united manifesto? their plans of an election strategy? all we get is in drips n drabs n we’re supposed to trust them n put them in power? c’mon..
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tht’s why sometimes i do wonder if Opposition Leaders from various parties know wht isa going on in the ground anot
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anonymous on Wed, 17th Feb 2010 5:14 pm
The Opposition are More like FREE-LOADING to me.
It is not only about accountability; even in this respect what have those three Opposition MPs currently – and both Chiam and Low have been there for around 20 or more years – in Parliament done?
I for one would want to know in what way would the same few Opposition MPs and hopefully other Opposition MPs do and before they get elected to show the electorate what they are capable of doing in terms of constructive criticisms and be able to debate the Ministers.
Oh as regards your mention of accountability, the PM put forth a question to WP’s Low Thia Khiang whether Wong Kan Seng should be asked to resign to take responsibility for Mas Selamat escape from ISD detention whereupon Low kept quiet.
What kind of accountability do you call this in the context of what transpired in Parliament as mentioned in the prior para?
Being able to interact on line with the electorate would allow the latter to be able to better judge the quality of the wanna be MPs, whichever party they belong to.
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Regardless of what medium the opposition uses, the non-partisan citizens would still expect them to be credible, identifiable, objective, responsible and not sensationalists.
No point propagating biased views. The silent majorities can tell what is good for them, without going around grinding their axes.
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By and large, I think the youth in Singapore are apathetic and only a minority is actively engaged in political discussions. It is also I suspect the same minority all the time. The majority are more interested in the latest fad, the latest Korean or Jap idol, social networks on Twitter n FB but not talking abt politics. New media or old, it makes no diff. You can lead a horse to the water, but you can’t make it drink.
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The oppositions are doing lots of underground work in preparing for the coming election . They have so many qualified candidates to choose and might fight for every single or GRC wards . Papayas are very worried sick as they are in the dark . They don’t even know what is going to happen . HA HA HA
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I feel the opposition parties need to do more to engage voters. How many of us actually go and read their blogs? They should be coming to us, not us to them. If they continue to stay low profile, people will only know of them on GE, which is not enough to swing some votes over.
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this is a good wake up call for all the opposition members hoping to seek better publicity. the new media is indeed a very viable source to reach out to voters and i also get the feeling that the opposition has underutilised this segment or media.
maybe TR can help out by publicising all blogs of politicians and political commentators (regardless of parties, for objectivity’s sake)
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In a true Westminister parliament there would be a Shadow Opposition Minister for every key ministry in Parliament. These key poeple would in theory take over these ministries if the opposition is voted into power. The challenge for the opposition is this..are they ready? Chee SJ for Home Affairs..Should Sylvia take on Law.. Low TK for PM, Kenneth J Finance or Trade n Industry? ? Throw down the gauntlet folks..
PS i left Chiam out cos of age..mayb MM?
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@李氏亡朝, I am not here hoping for changes which will NOT affect me cause I am never returning to Sinkapore as a Shitizen.
I am merely posting ‘History’.
On a side note, I noticed that the PaPies are new and inexperience in the Internet Arena and it beats me to wonder WHY and HOW despite being PAID MILLIONS they are still UNABLE to understand this area.
This is ONE AREA I feel the Opposition can concentrate and capitalise on, especially when many are already using Quad Xeons while PAPies are still running on Apple IIe.
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simonsay how old are you?
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The Sim
The real question is who is masquerading as lky and has a blog spot that claims chiam see tong is not trustworthy? i refer to;
lee kuan yew on Wed, 17th Feb 2010 9:16 pm
What? What are you talking about?
Even an Old Fart like me has a fan-page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lee-Kuan-Yew/343839138711?v=wall#!/pages/Lee-Kuan-Yew/343839138711?v=info
The post n link is somewhre above..now THAT is seriously an issue
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The question should b who is masquerading as LKY and slaming chiam as a cheat in his blog spot. Pls see one of the posts above n read the blog.. you’d be amazed..
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Sinkapore,
What will change will change.
Many hate MM Lee. But when it is depart it is depart. As with all regimes, once hopeless will just be gone.
Will Singapore change?
Point is, do people here qualify to guage? Many would suppose they do. But change is everyone’s business, including the PAP.
No problem staying out of Singapore. It’s actually a better move at this period of time. Hahahahahaha…
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