PM Lee: PAP ready to “battle” with opposition parties online
November 2nd, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
The ruling PAP has declared that it ready to “battle” with the opposition parties online.
During the PAP Party Convention yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the PAP is adopting new technologies to reach out to netizens.
‘We have to make sure we put our message out and have our people participate in the new media, to put across materials in ways which will make sense on the Internet,’ said Mr Lee.
Mr Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said that the PAP is trying to win Singaporeans’ trust and support by tackling perceptions of the party generated in the real world and also, increasingly, online.
He said that before and during a general election, new-media platforms can quickly sway the views of people:
“I think that’s where the most intensive fights will be. And the little battles are being fought right now in cyberspace. And that’s exactly why there’s a lot of urgency (to use) new media,’ said Mr Teo.”
His speech betrayed the PAP’s greatest fear that voters may be swayed by articles posted in cyberspace especially on sites with a high readership. However, its worries are really unfounded.
Mr Teo has been tasked with bringing the PAP’s propaganda to cyberspace with little success.
In the aftermath of the 2006 elections, the PAP set up a P65 blog to be helmed by its young MPs. The site floundered from lack of readership and was eventually “passed over” to be run by YPAP members.
Despite spending a considerable sum of money to revamp the PAP, YPAP and REACH websites, their readership remains far behind that of indepedent socio-political blogs.
Below is a summary of the traffic of various political sites in Singapore as of 2 November 2009, the smaller the ranking, the higher the traffic.
Site Alexa traffic ranking
Temasek Review 541
The Online Citizen 772
SDP 2209
REACH portal 3755
PAP 13,106
YPAP 37,197
p65 57342
As we can see from the above figures, the readership of government and PAP sites are way below that of Temasek Review and The Online Citizen which dominate the socio-political blogosphere of Singapore.
PM Lee said that “if the PAP is not using the internet, then the opposition will.” Actually, PM Lee need not be too worried as with the exception of SDP, the opposition is not making use of the internet to reach out to netizens. Even if he wants to, he has no opponent to battle with!
As for SDP, their image has been so “demonized” by years of repeated state propaganda that they are rendered largely ineffectual. Though it may able to command some support from young IT-savvy voters, they are unlikely to win over the middle ground.
Few opposition politicians own a blog. Those who do update them only on an infrequent basis and suffer from low readership.
Though Temasek Review and The Online Citizen have a sizable readership together, they are still way behind that of established news sites like Channel News Asia and Asiaone which can easily swarm and overwhelm the two sites run by amateur bloggers.
Furthermore, it is a well known fact that Temasek Review and The Online Citizen are mortal enemies and it is impossible for them to work together during the general elections. The owners of Temasek Review are basically entrepreneurs and they have no interest in politics.
Judging from present circumstances, it is highly unlikely that the political tsunami which happened in Malaysia in 2008 will be repeated in Singapore any time soon.
The new media enjoys far greater support and influence in Malaysia than in Singapore. It will be like hitting an egg against a rock if the new media were to challenge the mainstream media directly.
The PAP should continue to leverage on its greatest asset – the mainstream media instead of fretting over the socio-political news sites in Singapore which are too weak, divided and disorganized to pose a serious threat to them.
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31 Responses to “PM Lee: PAP ready to “battle” with opposition parties online”
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I read CNA, Asia1, TR and TOC but I BELIEVE ONLY in the stuffs I read in TR and TOC AND WHATEVER I READ ELSEWHERE.
I am afraid our ruling party will try to regulate the web even more fiercly once they start using it aggresively.
Election is coming. Things will be sweet and surreal will 2012. We’ll be encouraged to express ourselves freely; political films are unbanned. How wonderful. After the GE, if a certain ruling party is still sitting on their self-centred thrones, things will be back – and worse.
Is this their way of saying “if you say the wrong things online, we will sue you until your pants drop.” ??
I believe that the opposition will win at least 5 GRCs no matter what the MIW does. The people are very unhappy.
Perhaps the DDOS attack on your website is part of the “online battle”.
The PAP just doesn’t get it. It’s not how much you spend on its web portals – it’s the quality and honesty of content that it publishes. It has lost all trust from most sinkees, and even 1 good blogger who writes well can get more readers can PAP portals.
Quote “PAP is trying to win Singaporeans’ trust and support.”
Why you need to win Singaporeans’ trust and support if you have done your part.
Out of sudden, you have noticed that your have loss trust and support of Singaporeans.
What SPH has done in the attack on the TR website may be a foretaste of the tactics of the PAP against any opposing view. Will they ever learn to ‘battle’ fairly? Same as the elections we have. A loaded dice.
(if) i want to take down toc or tr, all i have to do is to get hundreds of posters to keep posting comment… till they are filled with crab…
its ok not too publish this comments. fyi only.
If I give them the vote,
My future HDB flat might cost 500K for a 3 room.
Pay S&C charges and still need to pay for LUPs.
TC loose our S&C money and not accountable.
My eletric bills go up 21% and then drop 5 % and then go again.
CPF life means I lagi cannot see my retirement money.
Meritocracy only works if you are healthy and have connections to climb the PAP corporate ladder.
My children will not get free education, must study until like zombie and worst compete with foreign student for local jobs.
My sons have to do NS and reservist while he sees his job vancancy go to foreigners.
Old people are collecting cans, cardboard boxes and cleaning our tables at coffeshops.
PM needs 1 MM, 2 SM, 2 DPM, 3MPs without experience (useless) to assist him. How incompedent can one person get, running a country the size of New York? Waste of tax payers money.
It’s time to make Singapore politcally mature. If I’m a stayer, I will change my country under my own terms. Vote for change.
Why is TR and TOC mortal enemies?
For two self declared neutral sites who are somewhat critical of the government, it is kinda sad not to have them work together, not unlike the opposition parties.
Maybe there is no hope for Singapore and PAP will dominate us for the next few decades again.
Will voters wake up at all?
Hi btan,
TR and TOC have a long history of animosities since our founding. The bad blood between the two parties is so bad that we are not even on talking terms, let alone work together.
There is a higher probability of us working with the msm than TOC. In fact, both sites have been mutually boycotting each other. Comments containing links to our site will be censored on TOC and vice versa.
The time for Change is now. The people are ready.
Bring on the elections.
You must be kidding. Temasek Review ahead of TOC ? Temasek Review is still a wayang website. Come on, the only thing you guys are doing so far is to cut and paste and form your own stories. Like what you have done here. If you ask the men on the ground, TR has no credibility and even less so compared to TOC. What a bunch of BS written.
Lim Eng Tong on Mon, 2nd Nov 2009 3:07 pm
You must be talking to the wrong crowd!!. TR has enough alluring commendations from varied sources.
“Furthermore, it is a well known fact that Temasek Review and The Online Citizen are mortal enemies”
why is this the case? is it just Andrew Loh or everybody else at TOC?
Hi Lim Eng Tong,
Thanks for your feedback.
Figures don’t lie. Go to http://www.alexa.com and key in temasekreview.com
TOC’s weekly traffic is only about 60 per cent of ours.
You are sure right – a site without credibility having a higher readership than TODAY and TNP?
The truth hurts, isn’t it? So who is uttering BS, you or us?
You can be assured that we will help Kelvin Teo build up Kent Ridge Review till it reaches our current readership. Check out CNA and ST in the next few weeks and you may find its domain name listed on it.
surprise… surprise! while over the weekend celebrating my grandmom birthday, our close relatives met over makan.
sudden discussion over the coming election, i was surprised by my aunties n uncles in their fifties n sixties, nothing was said “good feel” for the ruling party on the ever increasing costs of living and so called FT/FW issues.
interesting mentioned overheard this time, my elderly are voting for their sake of their grandsons and grand daughters future. hurray!!!
surprisingly, my cousins surf and knows TR, TOC, SgpNews alternate….etc eventhough we seldom met n talk about sgp politics.
thanks to TR, TOC n all other blogger sites. Victory shall come forth.
The way TR is going, it is just going no way. If you read the articles from this site, they have absolutely no compelling reasons for any readers to believe that’s the truth or fact. The views and arguments are flawed totally. Almost all articles. Unlike TOC, they are fair, transparent and objective. There is also no censorship practise. Anytime, I leave a comment, it gets published instantly. I don’t think there is any bad blood. But we owe it to the readers to provide objective and fair reading materials so that they can make better judgement. TOC does not go out there to grab attention. It is the only site that could provide an alternative view that is valuable. The ranking is not accurate. Look at the number of responses it attracts. It is not even half of TOC’s average. We should not compare TOC with TR. They are worlds apart.
hi
what is the history behind TR, TOC & KRC, can anyone enlighten? i’m new.
engard said: (if) i want to take down toc or tr, all i have to do is to get hundreds of posters to keep posting comment… till they are filled with crab…
Not so easy, wordpress has many available plugins, including but not limited to bad behaviour.
These posting will most likely end up under the SPAM section and all the moderators needed to rid of them is to CLICK ONCE on DELETE ALL.
@Heavenknow – not to be happy too soon. You have forgotten about pork barrel politics. Come election, your uncle and auntie will receive some goodies in their CPF account and they will suddenly become amnesiac. Otherwise they probably need not vote because of walkover.
What else ? Perhaps the DDOS attack is part of the “online battle”.
Hi TR,
For some reason, I had the impression that your feud with TOC mirrors the situation with opposition parties. Perhaps they too have bad blood among themselves such that they will work with PAP but not one another (much like what you said about working with MSM…although I sincerely hope you are joking).
Even your latest DDOS attack is similar to the dirty tricks done on opposition parties.
This article has a touch of melancholic truth. Maybe it is just our nation’s luck that we will never get a two-party system. The incumbent is simply too well entrenched and any oppositions (including alternative news sites) will face a gigantic mountain of obstacles to pass through.
Then again, they said that the night is the darkness just before dawn.
no amount of money can buy Truth, and that is exactly what the pappie sites are lacking…
@Lim Eng Tong on Mon, 2nd Nov 2009 9:25 pm
…”There is also no censorship practise….”
You are wrong! A number of my posts were deleted shortly after it appeared on my screen.
And the…. “The views and arguments ( I assumed here ) are flawed totally….”???? The statement of such vitriol betrays its own flawed unsubstantiated venom.
Are you precarious of sane judgment to assert that so many of those TR readers who came here to post are of equal unsound mind as yourself?? Or your prejudice instigated you to spout all this load of your rubbish thoughts?.
Reality prevails. If there is no great foods to serve, there is no long buying queue in wait for a share in bloggs here. STUPID!
Temasek Review should set up a strong presence in facebook, you could reach a much wider audience
Hi Facebook,
We already set up a Facebook account. The account name is temasekreview.
“I read CNA, Asia1, TR and TOC but I BELIEVE ONLY in the stuffs I read in TR and TOC AND WHATEVER I READ ELSEWHERE.”
I read everything, but I will not believe everything before diggesting.
“The ruling PAP has declared that it ready to “battle” with the opposition parties online.”
他是別人的對手嗎？ 若不是， 那就是癡人説夢話！
The current government has made Singapore an unbearable place to live !!!
hi admin,
i was referring more to reaching out to non-TR readers.
it would be great if we could have something like the NY times:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/nytimes
this allows “fans” to share specific articles on their walls, which would be viewed by their friends, thus reaching out to non-TR readers…this will bring much more readers to your site..