Teo Ser Luck: online space “abuzz” with PAP and YPAP websites
August 21st, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
In a letter published in the Straits Times Forum on 21 August 2009, YPAP Chairman Teo Ser Luck said that “only about three years ago, political engagement in Singapore was largely through traditional media. There was a dearth of online engagement.” (read article here)
Then he boasted that “three years on, the online space is abuzz with the People’s Action Party’s main and youth wing websites” to create the false impression that the PAP has been a trailblazer in online political discourse.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
Though political engagement in Singapore was minimal three years ago, there is a REACH portal for Singaporeans to provide their feedback online to the government.
There were active discussions and debates in many forums such as CNA, hardwarezone and sammyboy.com. The PAP had admitted sending in “agents” to rebuke some anti-government comments posted on these discussion boards.
Let us examine Mr Teo’s claim that the PAP websites are now “dominant” in cyberspace by comparing their respective traffic rankings in Singapore to ours and the average amount of time each user spent on it, according to web traffic company, Alexa.com, the lower the ranking, the higher the traffic:
Temasek Review: 1,832 (5.4 min/day)
[Note: the above ranking is a gross underestimate as domain name was registered only a month ago]
Main PAP website (www.pap.org.sg): 7,665 (1.9 min/day)
Young PAP website (www.youngpap.org.sg): 36,912 (1.8 min/day)
p65 blog (www.p65.sg): 20,934 (1.4 min/day)
As we can see from the above figure, Temasek Review is one of the top two socio-political sites in Singapore with a traffic ranking far ahead of the PAP websites.
A reader spent an average of 5.4 minutes a day reading our site compared to less than 2 minutes on each of the PAP sites.
Mr Teo should be ashamed of himself that his three PAP sites have achieved nothing in terms of engaging the youth after three years of efforts, not forgetting the amount of resources used.
The PAP websites are unlikely to go afar in Singapore’s cyberspace because the main reason why netizens turn to online news is that they are sick and tired of the endless state propaganda churning out by the mainstream media daily.
Cyberspace is the last bastion of freedom of speech in Singapore where citizens can voice out their dissatisfaction and disgruntlement against the regime openly and fearlessly, unmoderated and uncensored.
Mr Teo can continue to pat on his back and pretend that with the recent “revamp” of the sites to “host a repository of political articles and interactive platforms for anyone keen to keep abreast of political developments of the party.”, the PAP has entered the digital age.
Figures do not lie. After three years, the three PAP sites have barely grown and they will continue to stagnate in the near future given its monotonous and lacklustre content.
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23 Responses to “Teo Ser Luck: online space “abuzz” with PAP and YPAP websites”
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The stats are correct. I only visit Temasek Review daily, and not even know about the other 3 sites. Even if I did, I will not read much, because they are PAP and therefore they are always right. No point going there, unless I am bashing my own foot with a heavy stone.
Funny how the average is 1-2minutes?
Using scripts to churn out nice numbers for The Mathematician?
I did not know TSL is an MP until today. I saw him in a picture dancing hip hop. But I thought he is one of those funny actors in Media Corp. I am just wondering where are the quality people in Singapore. It seems that the quality of the MPs in terms of stature, calibre and maturity are deteriorating. How could we hand our next generations under the care of all these MPs.
I think PAP only have 1min because they force all their personnels and supporters to set their homepage to their website. No one read their website, the time spent on their website is due to it being the homepage, and the time need to type another address
only hardcore PAP supporters who don’t read MSM will visit pap websites.
Oh for goodness sake PAP website who wants to go there havent we have enough of their preaching and propaganda already on media corp tv and sph media.
It will be interesting to know the figures for the opposition websites as well.
of course it’s abuzz with PAP websites. Question is, who the hell cares to visit?
maybe teo ser luck can post his nude pic on pap websites to boost ratings. btw BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU POST ON GOVERNMENT WEBSITES. THEY KNOW YOUR IP ADDRESS AND CAN EASILY IDENTIFY YOU GIVEN THEIR RESOURCES AND DATABASES.
Teo Ser Luck is PAID good to wayang and talk cock, so I would be very surprised if he had boasted otherwise.
PAP websites aren’t capable of holding real discussions.
- when sensitive issues are discussed, the entire thread will be deleted. I have seen this happen many times. This is a waste of effort for people who had spent time putting in good arguments.
- if you say something that offends, you might be hauled up for “kopi”.
- you will just be discussing with a brick wall, every question will be met with standard answers. Will the PAP members dare give their frank views and deviate from standard answers?
The PAP websites are only good for their own members to wank one another.
Yeah… every one of the PAP people now only know how to boast and collect huge fees.
to Terence Goh,
agree the PAP members use their websites to wank each other and very likely take turns to suck on Teo Ser Luck’s lucky banana. Now I understand what the ‘abuzz’ is all about.
read another bootlicker woman telling us to be grateful and full of praise for the old man. castigating young bloggers for being ungrateful and blogging negatively about PAP. You get all this type of apple polishers in their websites.http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Online%2BStory/STIStory_419728.html
and the usual crap about what you can do for the country not the other way round. I have done alot but the govt prefers foreign talents and let in tons of PRs competing for jobs, educations, health, amenities, etc and demanding equal rights!!!
What is the point of reading PAP related blogs ?
You already get it in the Shit Times ?
Anyway what is so great if you had to hang a carrot (a VW car ?) in order to increase your readership ?
sicktothebones, I am so sick and tired of hearing idiots telling Sinkaporeans how they must be greatful to Harry Lee for this, that, blah blah blah as if he is ‘God’. These idiots simply have no idea what the fiack they are talking about!
The PaPies are PAID HIGHLY to do their job, they are SUPPOSED to make Sinkapore better, they are OBLIGATED to the people paying them BIG MONEY, not the other way round. If an employee performs well, he is rewarded otherwise dismissed!
So can anyone famiLEE worshipper give me one good reason why should a BOSS be grateful to his employee for PAYING THEM to do their job?
The general idea of the P65 blog is well intentioned. Nothing wrong with the idea. No one can blame the PAP from trying to communicate and touch base with the online community.
The problem seems to be their marketing plan. And their inability to profile an attractive package. They seem to think they can wing it all alone. I do not have doubts, they have alot of resources, such as the MSM and other covert sites to help them publicise their reads.
But to get a bread and butter readership like Mr Wang, Brotherhood Press, Mr Brown and other such blogs who already have a loyal following, they need to be able to be able to cultivate an identity that is separate and independent from the persona of the PAP.
This may be the most difficult thing for them to do. It may take decades, centuries even or they may not even be able to do that.
From a marketing perspective. If one looks at Mr Brown. He is allure seems to be linked with how he finds ever more innovative and creative ways to encase his messages by using the podcast medium. Many of his fans for example down load his works into ipods where they find it easy to go and exchange with friends.
P65 cannot do that. They can try, but so far they do not seem to show either the creative skill or capability to sustain that sort of product line.
In the case of Mr Wang. He invest alot not on content. But he is very interactive and frequently runs his blog like a chat forum. So if you ask him a question, it is not like the brotherhood press where it just goes into one black hole. You will get alot of interactivity there. And many find it reassuring that they can connect directly with a blogger.
Again, P65 cannot do that. They can try, but so far they do not seem to show either the creative skill or capability to sustain that sort of product line.
Brotherhood Press primary sell is they happen to be the only blog in SG that still produces reads averaging at least 3 A4 sheets. No one these days do that. They remain very long reads even by MSM standards. So their appeal will fall into a niche market and will be very different market segment from the one’s I mentioned above. But one thing remains clear. In a market where every blog is only churning out snippets, the 3 page blog will always command a loyal and dedicated following. That is one reason why they are so arrogant that they dont even bother to treat their readers with a modicum of respect.
The prevailing attitude seems to be, please take it or leave it.
Then again, judging from past and current events, that sort of attitude may also be their appeal.
Again, P65 cannot do that. They can try, but so far they do not seem to show either the creative skill or capability to sustain that sort of product line.
colgate said: The general idea of the P65 blog is well intentioned. Nothing wrong with the idea. No one can blame the PAP from trying to communicate and touch base with the online community.
You are very very very seriously wrong. Communicating with the people is the lease of intentions of the PaPies. By offering the blog under the pretext of comunicating with the people, anti-gahment posters are monitored and recorded for future ‘cleaning’ if necessary.
If you think the Po Panda Bear was arrested for his cocktail recipe, then you are so wrong. This Panda have been on the net long long time, always anti-gahment and have already been placed under the radar for a long long time by the system.
So when the cocktail recipe came along, it gave the gahment a reason to screw him and that is why he was called up and charged subsequently.
At least they are trying something. Though I bet sure cannot work one.
I think I know how they got that figure.
If you visit Talking Cock and click the Exit button they send u to the PAP site. Try ha.
“Cyberspace is the last bastion of freedom of speech in Singapore where citizens can voice out their dissatisfaction and disgruntlement against the regime openly and fearlessly, unmoderated and uncensored.”
FALLACY detected! moderation and censorship abound even for TR. government’s also checking forums and blogs to sieve out anti-pap people for persecution. and influencing sentiments by posting pro-pap comments and chastizing anti-government policies people. in short, no freedom.
If you check on PAP website, you can be traced.
If you check on this website, where it is hosted overseas, how could the govt trace you.
Please.