QotW8: when blogs and politics come together

Adopted blog's information at a glance:

1. Blog’s Title and URL: Singabloodypore @ http://singabloodypore.rsfblog.org/
2. Blogger’s Name (or Pseudonym): Blog owner is Steven McDermott from the UK, a one-time resident in Singapore. The pseudonym he uses is soci. Other contributors to the blog include Clyde, Xenoboysg, Eng Chuan, Charles,Mister K, Locky2K, Elia Diodati, Pantalaimon, Chemgen, AmicaCuriae, Yuen.
3. Blogger’s Occupation (politician or citizen blogger): Blog owner is a research student. For the other contributors, I am assuming that most of them are citizen bloggers, according to their blogger profiles and blogs.
4. Blog’s Date of Birth (look for the first post): 3rd July 2003
5. Technorati Rank: 156,018 (84 links from 28 blogs)

This blog contains entries by a group of bloggers on political and social issues in mainly Singapore, and sometimes South East Asia. Many of the posts contain anti-government sentiments. They also frequently questions and openly opposes and criticizes to the decisions made by the government and the People Action's Party (PAP). For example, one of their latest posts featured an article calling for a protest to ANU's Honorary Doctorate for MM Lee Kuan Yew (Soci, 2007). Despite the controversial content of the blog, the number of comments left on the blog are not overwhelming.


In response to the question this week, that is, if blogs allow for greater democracy in Singapore, I would say yes, but to a limited extent. Here are the reasons why.

• Some local political blogs represent views of ordinary citizens, not PAP politicians or politicians from the opposition parties. These views are invaluable, because they can reflect the opinions of you and I and people around us, who may be too afraid to speak up. These blogs encourage us to read their views, and share our thoughts with them. Being part of an Internet community, like a community blog, is metaphoric of being in a party, where someone needs to start a conversation. In this case, these political blogs discusses these issues, that are considered relatively sensitive in Singapore. There may not be many comments, but at least these posts pose an alternative point of view to many readers.
  

• Like how Thornton (2002) puts it, "the role of traditional media (television, magazines and newspapers) in modern democracy is increasingly problematic, and serious questions have arisen about its capacity as a site for political criticism or rational debate". In our local context, our traditional media has always been questioned with the democracy issues. I remembered following the media coverage of 2006 Parliamentary Elections last year. Although there were news and footage shown on television on opposition parties, they were significantly limited compared to the PAP's. In the past, we could rely on these forms of traditional media to obtain information. Now, with the Internet, we can obtain more information and even discuss about them.

So, why is it that blogs only allow greater democracy in Singapore to a limited extent?

• The reason is because there are ways to control the Internet as well. For instance, last May, Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts Balaji Sadasivan announced a ban on “explicitly political” podcasting and vodcasting during the General Election period (Giam, 2006). As Giam (2006) reasoned, this was to counter the availability of podcasts and vodcasts provided on Singapore Democratic Party's (SDP) website. In the end, SDP had no choice but to comply with the new regulation.

• In addition, "a post-election survey by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) revealed that only 33 per cent of Singaporeans — mostly young adults — said that the Internet was important to shaping their voting decisions" (Giam, 2006). If the result is accurate, this evidently shows that although the nature of the Internet allows of the promotion of democracy, it is not to an astonishing extent.

Therefore, I believe that blogs do increase exposure to democracy in Singapore, but not to a huge extent. At least not yet.

References

Giam, G. (2006, December 31). Review - The politics of Singapore’s new media in 2006. Retrieved March 24, 2007, from
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2006/12/31/review-the-politics-of-singapores-new-media-in-2006/

McDermott, S. (2007, March 23). Snap Action! Protest ANU’s Honorary Doctorate for Lee Kuan Yew. Singabloodypore. Retrieved March 24, 2007, from http://singabloodypore.rsfblog.org/archive/2007/03/23/snap-action-protest-anu-s-honorary-doctorate-for-lee-kwan-ye.html

Thornton, A. (2002, October). Does Internet Create Democracy? Retrieved on March 24, 2007, from http://www.zip.com.au/~athornto/