cHyOrK: >>

Friday, May 27, 2011

Had 2 consecutive days of meet-ups with 2 groups of navy brothers. For one group, we meet up 4-5 times a year. For the second group, we meet up 3-4 times a year. And there's always much to catch-up on. It's amazing how I've actually known them all for 5 years now, and everyone's pretty much the same as ever.

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With the GE over and Cabinet sworn in, I had expected the online chatter would die down fast. Yes, but not totally.

Early in the week, netizens had been fast on picking up the comments made by Irene Ng (Tampines GRC) on why Opposition MPs get much coverage on their Meet-the-People's sessions. She probably would be happy afterwards, to know that coincidentally, the newspapers on 26th May, Thursday, carried COVER PAGE stories on the brisk businesses at Meet-the-People's sessions after the GE. She really needn't have to worry about their own coverage in the first place, in my opinion.

Then midweek, netizens were fervently discussing on comments made by Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC) about his thoughts on the Ministerial salaries, implying that if they were paid too lowly, the private sector's CEOs may not respect them. The series of comments drew much attention and criticisms, which prompted him to say that he was 'quoted out of context'. Subsequently, it became that those comments were said 'jokingly' to the reporter.

And there's also a comment made by Tin Pei Ling (Marine Parade GRC) this week, which somehow embarrassed her English skills. See it here. Netizens just love to scrutinise every word she says and continue to cast her under bad light. Honestly, it's not a big problem at all, isnt't it?

From this week alone, we can really see that the ruling party's push to engage people through Facebook will not be received as well as they might have thought. Any comment, especially bad ones, will be scrutinised by thousands, and re-shared. Many things have changed since GE2011, but one of the most apparent ones, would be how people are really less fearful of the government now. You have people engaging Law Minister K Shanmugam through direct, pointed and tense Facebook exchanges--something that would never have been imagined just not too long ago.

The government needs Facebook to engage the netizens. It's a very convenient platform to reach out and gauge the ground sentiments, which they had failed prior to GE2011. But even when they're trying hard now, the online social media will continue to disadvantage them, because the perceived view of an arrogant party continues to reign. So perhaps it's a good move to engage in populism politics, by announcing the review of political salaries. However, in my opinion, the eventual downward revision might just be a small amount. Now, if that really happens, I foresee the populist measures backfiring...

人生是黑白的.
12:15 AM <3

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