Singapore Bloggers Shun Political Discussions

The cyberspace may offer opportunities for open political discussion but most Singaporeans are not participating.

This is according to the preliminary findings of a yet-to-be-completed study, conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), on the behaviour of Singapore voters at last year's General Election.

"There are some blogs that are politically engaged but, if you look at the content and the total number of blogs, they are not that many for a country that is so wired up and so high up in terms of computerisation," said IPS deputy director Arun Mahizhnan, during a discussion at the 16th Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (Amic) annual conference yesterday.

"With regard to the contents of the blogs, only a few can be characterised as serious political engagement," Mr Mahizhnan said, citing Mr Alex Au of Yawning Bread and Mr Lee Kin Mun, also known as mr brown. "But there are not many others like these two."

When it comes to managing new media, Mr Mahizhnan believes authorities face a dilemma.

He told TODAY: "On the one hand, it (the Government) wants to promote information communications technologies (ICT) in Singapore, but on the other hand, it is also concerned about ICT abuses. So, it tries to put certain controls, but unfortunately, the Internet is not easily controlled by any one government or one organisation."

Mr Mahizhnan believes the way forward is to accept that there will be a divergence of views in the digital world. As such, he believes the focus should be on building a socially immune system. Hailing groupings such as the Parents Advisory Group for the Internet (PAGi) as exemplary, he said: "The move for society to build its own defences has to be a many-pronged approach, both top-down and bottom-up."

But will new media have any impact on regulations governing the mainstream press in Singapore?

Another panellist, Associate Professor Tey Tsung Hun who teaches at the National University of Singapore's law faculty, takes a cautious stand. He said: "It is unlikely that we will see any changes in the legislative framework governing the print media in the next two to three years. There is no reason to change the law unless there is evidence that it is not conducive to the Government's aspiration to develop Singapore as a media hub."

But panellist Au was hopeful. Citing the advent of gay websites, he said at the session: "Here is maybe an example where new media can lead to social change which, in turn, in due course might lead to a loosening of regulations governing mainstream media."