Thoughts on social media and Singapore General Election 2011

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It is elections week in Singapore and of major significance is the unprecedented use of new media for campaigning. This geek has always been rather ill-informed when it comes to local politics. In fact, I can probably discourse with you more about politics in US, Malaysia, or even China as a result of spending more than half my time outside Singapore. This has somewhat changed in the past year with the rise of what some politicians have labeled as anti-establishment socio-political news sites. The not-so-new media seems to be contributing significantly to a political awakening, especially for those born after 1965.

Social media has definitely helped to create a lot of buzz for what is turning out to be a watershed elections. However, the power of social media to actually move votes remains to be seen. Taking into consideration the response to stadium-packed rallies, this geek wonders if social media is that powerful a galvanizing force in this case or just a platform for one to have a really amplified outlet for long suppressed feelings.

From socio-political news sites to social-media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, we read about issues like highly paid ministers who do not seem to be held accountable for runaway terrorists, floods in our modern urban areas, high cost of public housing and transportation, loss of jobs to foreign talents who do not have to perform mandatory national service, CPF that is giving negative real interest rate returns, and the list goes on. Although ministerial pay is pegged to the top six professions in Singapore, resulting in our ministers being paid much more than politicians found anywhere else in the world, they do not seem to be held accountable for failings unlike corporate CEOs as their performance is only pegged to GDP growth. The root of this issue seems to be a change in the social contract between the leadership of Singapore and the people.

Being a politician is hard work, and this geek wants to salute all candidates standing for elections this year, whether from the ruling party or opposition parties. If you are not convinced it's hard work, you can check out the amount of perspiration netizens are observing for one particular politician. As some former opposition candidates have had their lives literally destroyed with defamation lawsuits and bankruptcy, many opposition candidates in this elections, especially those from the elite club like Tan Jee Say and Chen Show Mao have acquired cult-like statuses as they are seen as forgoing the easy path of joining the ruling party and opting instead for arduous paths that can be seen as almost suicidal. This geek was also surprised to learn that entrepreneur Yee Jenn Jong, who built one of the most successful e-learning companies in Singapore, is running for the opposition. Not to mention the rock star Nicole Seah who has just become the most-liked local politician on Facebook with more than 70,000 likes.

Many young voters this geek spoke to will be voting for what they deem as change. Originally seen as more apathetic, they are now experiencing a political awakening as they want to use their vote to make a stand against gerrymandering, blows below the belt, and other issues close to their hearts. They see the ruling party as out of touch, not listening and hope to send co-pilots to the parliament to keep the plane on course. And they have huge amplified voices with the help of social media.

There is an infographic on the online buzz made by Tribal DDB and Brandtology at the start of this post. You can check it out here. However, there is also a large bloc of conservative voters, known as the silent majority, who will probably vote for stability. Since they are known as the silent majority, it is unlikely their views have been captured in the infographic above.

Whatever it is, one thing is for sure: The internet has definitely influenced the Singapore elections in a big way and whatever the outcome, Singapore will never be the same again after May 7. It is of interest to note that China announced today the setup of a new agency to regulate the Internet. It makes this geek wonder if Singapore will ever head down the same way in future.