Saturday, March 24, 2007

QotW8: Speak, Strike, Redress

Adopt either a Singapore politician who blogs or a local blogger who discusses politics. After that, turn to “Does the Internet create Democracy?” (2002) by Alinta Thornton, and ask yourself: Do blogs allow for greater democracy in Singapore?

QotW8: Speak, Strike, Redress

(Social and political issues related to Singapore and the South East Asia region. A blog which attempts to do so in a non-trivial manner treating opposing views with the respect they deserve. Contributions are welcomed from all regardless of your political persuasion.)

Blog title: Singabloodypore

URL link: http://singabloodypore.blogspot.com/

Blogger’s Name: Irishman Steven McDermott, 33, aka Soci, a former sociology lecturer and one-time resident here who now runs the blog out of Scotland.

Bloggers’ occupation: Citizen Blogger

Blog’s Date of birth / First blog entry: July 3rd 2003

Technorati rank: Non-existent as it is not registered with Technorati. However, there are 2515 links to this blog.

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When I first read this blog, I was impressed with its content and its simple white-background-black-text layout. The main aim why this blog was created was for its author, Soci (short for Society), to vent his frustrations on the way individuals in Singapore were suppressed by society’s lack of freedom for self expression.

One example was that organizations tend to favor the management and those below in hierarchy become “yes-men”, where they never question why this policy was implemented or will it work. To question something or to disagree with the superiors will certainly be disrespectful to what is “best” for the organization. This issue does make me recall Jack Neo’s movie, “Just Follow Law”, where it highlights the satirical look at the inflexibility of outdated governmental rules and regulations and the rigid mindsets of civil servants who follow rules to a fault (“Just Follow Law”, 2007). How can an organization improve when there is no input by the employees?

This abstract was taken from its first post dated on 3rd July 2003 and it highlights the rigidity of the hierarchy of the organization that Soci works in:

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“usually uttered by a male claiming superior status to others involved in the so-called discussion. I use the term 'discussion' loosely. The 'gatherings' are more akin to that of a lecture, whereby one of the bodies talks and the others feign interest, such as nodding head and tilting head to the left or right. Significance of tilting left or right may require further research...Only the self-proclaimed individual or speaker may speak. I have myself upon arrival committed a serious breach in the rules of interaction by uttering , during a gathering the phrases, 'no' and 'why?'. these words responded in a breach of the rules of speech. Or simply put, i spoke. Quickly realising my mistake and making excuses this body retreated from the gathering... in order to return another day.”

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Besides organizational issues, Soci also highlights issues such as the community, culture, East and Southeast Asia politics, media and freedom of expression in the form of reports or articles released either on print or online. However, when he first started in 2003, he posted more of his thoughts on the dysfunctional side of Singapore, including what he felt about the political party in Singapore.

“The first thing that struck me as odd was that the Rally of a particular political party is heralded as the nation’s speech. Surely it should be classified as the Peoples Action Party Rally. This then led to further ideas. In particular, that the PAP has assigned itself as 'Singapore', and as 'the' Singaporean Government, past present and future” (August 20, 2003).

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One feature that stood out from other political bloggers in Singapore was his online petitions, which ranged from economical issues such as the GST hike to social issues such as the anti-death penalty in Singapore. This allowed interactivity for readers and made up for the lack of comments for many entries. In addition, the blog was also mentioned in The Straits Times, ZDNet, AsiaMedia, IPS News and Today Online.


Blogs… do they have the power to “speak, strike and redress”?

As I read Soci’s blog, I realized that his views on Singapore were true to a large extent – Singapore allows freedom of expression but it is to a very limited extent in the public domain. The government largely regulates the mass media in Singapore and anything not in favor of the main political party is largely weeded out. While they are able to censor the media companies in Singapore, they are unable to regulate the growing number of blogs and forums in the virtual world. As noted by Thornton (2002), “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”. Since traditional media can only hold a superficial amount of information and readers thoughts, the rest of the information is transferred to the online avenue where most of the people air their views.


With the rise of bloggers and their ability to share their views through their blogs, it also brings them one step closer to an opportunity for more voices to be heard in the public sphere (Thornton, 2002). As such, this encourages bloggers to continue to air their thoughts, as writing brings them closer to like-minded individuals with similar interests where they can leave comments or link similar blogs to their own.


As highlighted by Gerald Giam (2006) in The Online Citizen, there was a disapproval over self-regulation by bloggers, as “most Netizens were against the idea of any sort of regulation or code of ethics on a platform which some saw as the “last bastion of truly free expression” in Singapore”. Hence, while blogs are currently unable to change the government’s stance over their policies, they still have the power to allow the authors to speak their minds as well as to influence their readers. Democracy will come in future when there are too many voices to be ignored by the government and the people persistently seek to rectify their situation.


References

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

Just Follow Law. (2007, March 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 24, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Just_Follow_Law&oldid=115729475

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


2 comments:

dfgd said...

iHi Velvet eden

I enjoyed reading your write up as it concerns a lot of issues that I am also currently researching. I can also tell you that I am now 35 not 33.

As for the question of whether or not blogs engender or endanger democracy I think you might want to ask, 'what sort of democracy?' The blogosphere, it might be argued, is increasing 'deliberative democracy' but only to a point as the government institutions are not letting it be known that the discussions are influencing policy decisions. The PAP has however let it be known that they are monitoring blogs and countering criticism anonymously. So that means they are actually starting to take it seriously as a source of alternative information. They also have set up their own blog the post65 thing.

It is still early days in terms of the blogosphere in Singapore, so it is difficult to predict the future relationship between the blogs and the citizens of Singapore, but in the 2006 elections the number of people visiting singabloodypore went off the chart. But since then the reader numbers only increases in the run up to an execution.

Any way thanks for taking an interest and I hope you feel ok about continuing to blog in Singapore. And if you ever need someone to discuss your research with, feel free to ask.

Soci

Renhao said...

I think it's interesting that Soci says its still the early days of the blog in Singapore. Many things I've read have both explicitly and implicitly brought me to the conclusion that blogging is at least reaching a peak in here. I must have been taking those casual wakeupbrushteethhaha blogs into account as well. I hope those blogs will decline soon...