Apologises

It seems that I have been away for some time, and I should offer profound apologies for my absence. Although I have personally seen that a lot of local issues deserve analysis, critique and refutation (e.g. the gay parties and AIDS relationship, recent changes to the educational system, ST's supposed fair and objective stance), I only hope my fellow bloggers out there will be on the battle field to provide their valuable points and counter-punches.

I have been recently interview by two interlocutors, one being Void Deck and another was a email interview for a NTU study on political blogging. I have decided to post the email interview for the meantime, so readers can understand my background in simple parlance. It's also a low tactic to make up for my absence, I confess. I also hope fellow bloggers will do the same in sharing their personal ideals and opinions.

I also received this proposal for a campaign advocated by J.B. Jeyaretnam for Constitutional Amendment. I do have some issues with how the proposal was drafted but I shall post it up so that others can have a read and discuss if they wish. In retrospect, this could be used as a stepping stone for organization.

That is if people choose to do so.

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E-Mail Interview

How do you feel about being a young political blogger in Singapore yourself?

This is a standard question that I can only reply with a non-standard position: there is nothing to feel. I don't think bloggers, me included, would have any rush of esctascy or experience some euphoria just because we are young political bloggers. If you mean in relation to the fact that Singapore has very few, what I call "objective" political commentators (in real life or online), then as a political blogger, I do feel that it is imperative to express one's own opinions, beliefs, thoughts and especially discontentment about the society one lives in. This principle, I believe, is universal and shouldn't be disregarded as long as the circumstances provide for it (in fact, I can think of very few situations where we can justify abolishing it).

If you are expecting an answer of grandiosity, or something like "wow, I am much smarter than those PSC scholars", well no. Or if you are expecting some answer like "yeah I am scared the ISD will knock on my doors", well that's a legitimate fear but I doubt that much would manifest realistically. As an individual political blogger, it's simply a one-directional means of communicating your political beliefs and opinions on social matters. It's also a very lonely and individualistic process.

Do you think your views affect a lot of people?

Honestly, no. In fact, I will be surprised if it did. And there's a good reason for it, outside of my personal belief that my views can possibly be construed as insane as a schizophrenic in Woodbridge.

Very few people, in my opinion, surf the internet for political commentary. And one would expect an even lesser degree of individuals who would take the views of an individual blogger seriously. Unless you have some reputation that precedes you, as a political blogger, you are most likely considered to be a lone observer or just some angsty teenager raging against the machine. Even if someone were to provide the best research, analysis or knowledge in all mankind, as long as the medium is a blog, it's highly unlikely his/her views are going to influence a large number of people. Until that kind of critique or analysis is brought to a suitable medium, where it can be properly communicated to the right audience, and further shared among different kinds of receivers, then one can reasonably expect that diffusion to appear.

In regards to political blogging, especially in Singapore, I think anyone will be very skeptical to not only listen but consider the opinions of their own citizens. In fact I expect people to be hostile to political commentators. Probably the only positions we feel most comfortable in tuning to are the words of social elites, pro-governmental figures or government officials. But that kind of social mentality speaks a lot about us as a society.

Do you think it is a good thing more young people are voicing their political views?

There are two assumptions with this question. Firstly, is there truly more young people voicing their political views? To my knowledge, I know of no study that proves this. I only assume there is a perception that there are more young political commentators, probably partially thanks to the national press. It's more logical to say that there is more public attention paid to them instead. Second, why do we even have to assume whether it is a "good" or "bad" thing? Obviously, I should imagine it is a positive step but let me qualify this assertion in more detail.

Let's for now, assume that there are indeed "more" political commentators. A person who is subservient to national ideology, in my view, is most likely to consider this a threat, hence a "bad thing", that there is more disarray in the community (how more frightful it is that this is more prevalent among the youth), or chaos is supposed to break out due to more outspoken voices beind heard. I believe, for anyone that is truly concerned with a minimal level of social progression, and a firm believer in group harmony and integration, you want to hear more voices from the people. It is a lot easier to live in a society, no doubt that is docile and paternalistic, where almost every crucial aspect of life is managed and monitored for you. But it also implies a lesser degree of control on those aspects too, such as right of expression, labour rights and etc.

I can't speak ,of course, for every young political commentator out there but it is possible that these authoritarian aspects of life are becoming more salient to them now and thus they feel compelled to voice their opinions somewhere. Well, this is Singapore, where is the only place they can do it?

How do you think young political bloggers like yourself impact Singapore's society?

None. Zinch, nana. Nonexistent truly. In fact, if you want an example of the belief that bloggers wouldn't have a concrete impact on society in general, you don't have to go very far but look at the statement made by MM Lee Kuan Yew in the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum in NUS. When Jamie Han spoke about the limited avenues of communication, MM Lee listed out a few means, but his last comment, strongly regarded as a joke, was using the Internet. Jamie didn't need to elaborate on the futility of the other avenues, such as writing to the Forum section of the Straits Times or submitting his comments in other magazines, so as a last resort, MM Lee jokingly suggested the internet. But the internet is just simply another medium that has its own limitations and consequently, has little impact on society in terms of political affairs.

There is a book, I think it's called "Cyberactivism: Political dissent or expression in Southeast Asia" or something similar. It's a yellow book, and has some journal articles on Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore as well. One of the statements in that book, which I think can be largely supported, is that the internet cannot be considered as an instrumental tool to democractization in a country. It's useful in some sense like spreading a messenge to others and it can help marginally in bringing individuals together to form a collective, but unless those same people can transfer their agenda into the real world and work effectively in sharing their ideas across society as a whole, they are going to have very little impact.

Do you foresee changes to the political scene in Singapore in the future?

As a result of political blogging? No. I mean it's possible there may be some changes but how much it can be attributed to political blogging, nobody can truly measure and state unequivocally the extent of its effects. If you mean regardless of political blogging, so just as how Singapore, as a political entity, might evolve in the future, well nobody can predict. For my own opinion, I am very skeptical of any possible changes, and if there were, I doubt very much they are what we might regard as fundamental shifts in power and structure. Perhaps they might be some cosmetic changes, and I welcome any move, no matter how small, to liberalise the political rights of Singaporeans, but it wouldn't be anywhere near ideal unless large decisive changes are made or if the population demands and takes action for these changes.

Does the increasing number of young political blog change your opinion of young Singaporeans?

My opinion is going to count for very little, in fact it doesn't help in any way for assessing the attitudes of young Singaporeans. As a straightforward answer, no, it hasn't changed my opinion and I am not too sure how one should even think about young Singaporeans. Again, I don't think there is an increase in the number of political blogs, but even if there was, these writings only reflect the disenchantment most youths feel and you don't need to read political blogs to know that. We can just simply ask them right out and we can choose to pay attention to them if we want to care about what they think.

There's also another interesting insinulation in your question. How young do you think the political bloggers are? I have no idea how old some of the political bloggers are, and to me, it never has any impact on what I think of their opinions and beliefs. By and large, I find instead that the most well-informed and constructive bloggers are nowhere what I consider "youth". Maybe young like mid twenties and above, but that's reasonable to expect because now they have some sense of reality on how much none of their opinions are being expressed and heard. If you are a young adult, as opposed to a teenager, you are going to start realising how much local policies are going to affect you and how they are made without your participation and consent.