QotW8: Blogging Ministers

Instead of focusing on one particular minister's blog for this week's contribution, I would like to talk about the "P-65" blog.(http://p-65.sg/) This blog was adequately chosen as I have visited it a few times and because a particular entry in this blog has a strong personal and sentimental value to me. (this, I will elaborate briefly later on)

The "P-65" blog has a rather catchy tag-line, It's Where We Talk" and it is composed by 12 Members of Parliment (MP's) that were born after Singapore's independence. Various issues are being discussed in this forum, everything from Parliment-related issues, such as the recent GST hike to less weighty issues that revolve around the minister's personal lives, like for example practicing for the hip-hop item during the Chingay 2007. The politicians will first post an entry about a particular issue and citizens can freely leave their comments or suggestions regarding the topic. After a brief lookup on this blog, I found that the first blog entry was posted on October 3rd 2006 last year. It was a post by Christopher de Souza on the subject "Street Soccer Boots" A check on Technorati shows that the "P-65 blog" has 38,943 as it's rank status, and has 301 links from 101 blogs. (updated 7 days ago) Although this blog is run by 12 different politicians, I will focus on one individual, Mr Teo Ser Luck, examine some of his blog entries and discuss about the reader's comments.

Mr Teo Ser Luck is a member of the Pasir Ris Punggol Grassroots and Community and the Parlimentary Secretary to the Minister for Community Development Youth and Sports. Due to his appointment, his blog posts often revolve around youth and sports related issues. His blog discusses youth issues, such as how to bring about the best in them and sports topics, for example sports excellence and the grooming of the sports industry in Singapore. However, a check on the comments left on this blog always reflect the same few names. Familiar ones include "El" and "Easternwind", both are probably the most active visitors to this blog. The comments left by the visitors are really nothing out of the ordinary, and we see comments such as "I agree with you on that" etc. Therefore, I would say that the tone used is very mild. From the majority of the comments gathered, it seems that most people agree with what the politicians say rather than disagree with them.

However, I would like to inform others that not only national related issues and policies are being discussed on the blog. Stories that touch and revolve around the life of anyone of these 12 politicians are posted on the blog too. I would like to highlight this particular entry, "My 2 Mentors" posted on October 7th 2006. It was extremely heart-warming to read this blog post by Teo Ser Luck as he talked about his 2 mentors that helped him and gave him invaluable advice when he was working in the private sector. Though it was something that was personal to him, he chose to post it online and share his thoughts with others. I felt touched by his action simply because the mentor "Chan" which he referred to in his entry was my beloved uncle who passed away of cancer last August. Knowing that he appreciated my uncle as his mentor was heartfelt.

Putting personal matters aside, I am very glad that our local politicians and members of the public have taken to blogging to voice out their comments on national issues. Though I feel that there is still much room for democracy, I am glad that our people and even politicians have broken out of their comfort zone to share their views. That is indeed a VERY important first step. Blogging will definitely increase a country's democracy, as in the case of USA, the improvement in technology has enabled the expansion of knowledge, freedom and it will also democratize culture. (Carey, 1989:144) Though we still have a long way to go to achieve democracy through blogs, I believe that the government has identified and realized that blogs will play a very vital role in our citizen's lives in the future. Thus, the government has "prepared" herself by setting a new division- New Media Unit by the personal relations communication department of the Ministry of Information, Communications and Arts(MICA), to offer advice to the government on Internet public communication. Even the rise of local bloggers, such as Mr Brown who comments on national related issues are drawing hundreds of listeners each week. However, we must all realize that in order to attain success in greater democracy through blogging, bloggers must never mix their personal feelings with the proper issues, they should focus on the rationality of the content alone. (Calhoun, 1993:13)

Hence in conclusion, I believe that blogs will bring about greater democracy in Singapore. However, we are still in the infancy age and have a really far way to go. However, it is comforting to know that our local politicians and citizens have taken such a serious attitude to blogging. Hopefully, all will work out well in the future.

References:

Carey, J.(1989) "Space, Time and Communications: A Tribute to Harold Innis", in Communication as Culture. New York: Routledge: 12

Calhoun, C.ed. (1993) Habermas and the Public Sphere. Massachussetts: MIT Press.

Giam, Gerald (2006). "Review- The politics of Singapore's new media in 2006." Retrieved March 23rd 2007 from http://theonlinecitizen.com/2006/12/31/review-the-politics-of-singapores-new-media-in-2006/