Spectacularly Secular

Wow, I now know what it’s like to be deprived of the Internet for a long period of time. Liberating! Yes it was tough at the beginning, working at a country practically devoid of the Internet, with only my GSM phone and PS3 to accompany me, where any instance of the Internet is instantly snapped up for personal communiques with loved ones, all the other things that we do on the Internet suddenly seem frivolous.

Like the recent shitstorm surrounding this upcoming website Singanews. The local blogosphere is awash with allegations of the continuing encroachment of Christianity into Singapore’s secular landscape, by none other than the Thioliban (great idea btw), an amalgamation of Thio Li Ann the ex-NMP and daughter of the matriarch puppet master I mean womentor of the AWARE saga and the obvious Taliban ultra-conservative Afghan guerrilla band ex-what stood for an Afghan government.

Looking back (thanks to Google and Sam’s Thoughts), it appears that the 1-2 punch delivered by The Void Deck (props) and Temasek Review lit up the collective brains of the liberal blogosphere. Allegations abound with veiled portents of conversative Christianity creeping into the sacred liberal grounds of the blogosphere and despite protestations that Singanews was under siege by “secular militants”, it would continue on its merry trek towards providing alternative views and filling the gaps in national debate.

Naturally the liberal blogosphere interpreted that as typical double speak, and frankly with Singanews already wearing the scarlet letter, can Singanews continue to exist other than that of a site expounding Christian values?

The AWARE saga jolted this generation’s bloggers into coming to terms with the idea that values (religious or any other kind) are everywhere and seep into our venacular and consciousness whereever and whatever you do. Even as I type this, my values are imparted into the message. Dare anyone who blogs say that whatever they expound or express on their blogs do not in every way impart their own values to the reading public? Apparently a majority of Singapore’s bloggers are bleeding heart liberals, but liberalism is also a value, just like conservatism is one as well.

What we’re seeing here, is 2 camps being formed and a line drawn in the sand. Both are right and both are wrong at the same time, be it secular militants or conservative fundamentalists (or fundies as people are wont to call them these days). Is the local blogosphere to be dictated by the front-runner liberals? Is the local blogosphere so small that “deviant” speech cannot be tolerated? As a Christian would say, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

Well it looks like everyone’s casting stones right now. However it is fair in my mind to say that Secular Singapore remains the way it is with its careful balance of multiple races and religions because it accords all equal treatment, and such it has been an unstated condition that your religion is yours alone and thus understated. The Fateha tudung incident reminded us that grandiose religious displays are frowned upon and you only need to stay in Malaysia for a few days to understand the effort the Malaysian government puts to appease  its Muslim majority. Then why the anger? If we are ok with Christian bookshops, why can’t we tolerate Christian websites? I  suspect the liberal blogosphere is so put off by the Thioliban because of the way they apparently conduct their “business”: in a surreptitious manner.

Old vs New: Providing alternatives or power-grab?

Old net horse Mr Tan Tarn How recently chaired a seminar on New Media Development at the Institute of Policy Studies Seminar titled “Getting Their Hands Ready: Recent Developments in Singapore Political Blogosphere.” I didn’t attend but I’m sure the session must have been enlightening and insightful judging from the slides published online.

What got me thinking tho, was this particular slide:

Most interestingly, the slide mentions specifically Yawningbread, TOC and Wayang Party Club. In the following slides members of TOC and Yawningbread could be seen; I have no idea who runs WPC. I cannot speculate the rationale behind Mr Tan’s choices of these 3 sites as representative of the blogosphere, but it would have been empowering indeed for these three sites to be chosen to represent the blogosphere in this forum.

I admittedly have heard of Yawningbread and TOC but to my knowledge I’ve never heard of WPC. If it is a new-comer, it must have powerful or influential friends to have been picked from the crop. Why not Singapore Daily? Or The Void Deck? Or New Sintercom (tho admittedly the Old Sintercom was mentioned)?

As bigger and bigger sites compete for eyeballs, it does appear as if the various heavyhitters are now not only vying for eyeballs, but also for credibility and reputation, exactly what any mainstream media seeks. One could soon liken these sites to alternative mainstream media. Instead of settling for being A voice, these sites want to be THE voice. Even if the community would begin to accept such AMM as credible vis-a-vis traditional mainstream media, I feel one must always question the motives of alternative mediums seeking statuses of more than just that. Otherwise readers will again fall into the trap of nation-building.

They’ll keep you informed (indeed)

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/268876.asp

The Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) has started giving out scholarships for undergraduate studies, starting with 6 young talents this year. Senior Minister of State (Information, Communications and the Arts). These bright young men and women will upon graduation join MICA as information officers who will “manage communication issues” and “reach out to segments of the population who look for alternatives to traditional media for information“.

Most interesting I think, does this segment of the population imply bloggers and most of the young in generation who now rely on social networks and Youtube for their daily dose of info? Is this a thrust in the new direction of engagement, of reaching out to the Youtube generation by recruiting from the same gene pool? Who better to tell you what’s right or wrong, what’s cool and what’s not, than your own peers? Isn’t that the very premise of a social network? Good move I’d say.

Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, who presented the scholarships, said the introduction of the awards “reflects the increasing importance the Government places on information management”. RAdm (NS) Lui said that in times of crisis, information officers function as “the voice of the Government in helping to quell rumours, dispel fears, rally the people and maintain confidence and trust.”

Indeed, one of the 6 bright young chaps also believed that “information needs to be tailored to the medium“. A stellar and bright future indeed. According to TODAY, MICA has 105 information officers. What exactly does this 105-strong team do at MICA, with respect to the above mandates Must be one heck of an awesome job, surfing the net all day, watching for instigators, naysayers and troubadours. Or is that having their daily dose of XiaXue and Dawn Yang and yet have their tea and crumpets to eat as well?

Would these visionary young help change the way MICA and our government views non-MSM sources of info? Hardly I think. More likely, as scholars on service bonds yet lucrative remuneration packages, they’d just toe the line and carry out the instructions of their superiors ie watch and report. Will they be on hand to craft policies to properly benefit the changing social landscape and bring it to the fold? I doubt that. Then why the big deal of an Information Service? Formalise recruitment and budgeting to create a veritable army of eyes and ears to carry out the insidious mandate of MICA for its political masters. Indeed one would need an actual army to properly cover the scope at play here. If you thought YoungPAP was the culmination of treachery that it is now, you haven’t seen anything yet.

The Power of The Internet

The Internet is fast changing how politicians and citizens engage each other in the political and social arenas. With the godsend that is community sharing sites like YouTube, MetaCafe and WikiPedia, citizens have gotten increasingly involved and bold in their attempts to voice out and engage.

The incumbent powers that be are only slowly catching up to this game.

To wit, check out these vids by sgpolitic (thanks for the email!):

There are four by sgpolitic, which you can view here. Truly a few pictures speaks millions of words. “DIssension” within indeed. With a few cursory skills, these days any pundit can chime in their 2 bytes worth to an audience of millions far quicker and more effectively than Speakers Corner ever can.

The incumbent powers are slowly but surely catching on, from the PAP cyber-agents trawling the Net to allegations of MICA agents sniffing around and policing the general populace, it is clear that they aren’t stupid; just not that smart. Why? The way I see it, in every arena of play, be it movies, politics, the workplace, even the neighbourhood playground, there is that one constant struggle, the struggle for power.

I’ve been recently reading up on issues on terrorism and there appears to be a rift forming between the radical fighters in Iraq. Does the struggle justify slaughter of ordinary Muslims? This basic question of killing your own is creating a rift between those who think it’s ok and those who think it’s not. Figureheads will make mission statements and manifestos, but ultimately once you cut throw the vitriol, it boils down to a struggle for power, the (moral) right to lead.

We are also seeing this happening in the blogosphere, with centres of power forming here and there, examples include SingaporeAngle, IntelligentSingaporean, Tomorrow.Sg, TheVoidDeck, et al, and the various larger than life figures who stake their claims in these centres of power. Invariably, the constant rears its ugly head. The struggle for power, in the subconscious need to assert that their moralistic(?), intellectual or scholastic arguments hold true over others, the struggle for power muddles their intellectual-aristocratic minds. This is happening already, you just need to browse around.

In any struggle there will be casualties. Very soon we’ll see blogs and writers shutting down and calling it quits or cooling off. Like a flaming plasma vortex, these things tend to fizzle out. If I were the incumbent, I would just sit back, enjoy the show, and keep the train chugging along. If I can throw in a few logs to stoke the flame, why not.

You might argue that the Internet is a force to be reckoned with and anyone saying otherwise is gentrified, old-fashioned, passe, behind the times and dangerously about to be out-evolved. However, the way I see it, the only simple question that needs to be asked and answered is: Would you vote a cyber-politician into office?

http://www.newsintercom.org/index.php?itemid=530

Blogging and the Law

On 18th January 2006, the Institute of Policy Studies organised a closed-door discussion on the topic of Blogging and the Law.

This is according to local bloggers mrbrown and Mr Miyagi,

They didn’t say much about what happened in this closed-door event except for some pictures. However the title of this closed-door event is interesting to say the least. Considering the venue, it’s very likely that the powers-that-be are considering legislating blogging. It’s pretty clear that this was mooted by the recent blogging/hate/Sedition Act cases.

In 2005 I wrote on this very specific issue. In it I proposed a self-policing or moderation policy as opposed to a throw-the-book approach that the PAP has adopted (clearly a political Send-A-Message).

However it would seem that the government is going to take this one step further by considering legislation on blogging, possibly also in view of GE2006.

To me, legislating blogging is missing the forest for the trees and reflective of the PAP’s neanderthal style. It’s analogous to flocking to a commotion in the street, seeing a loon hurling racial epitaphs at no one in particular, then getting offended and braying for a law to clamp down on talking in public!

While technology has changed, human nature hasn’t. Social ills and bad behaviour remain constant. There are enough laws to come down hard on these things. Bad behaviour exists everywhere, virtually or otherwise. If you open the floodgates of law on blogging, where does it stop? Websites? Forums? Mailing lists? Usenet?

http://www.newsintercom.org/index.php?itemid=397

Too much freedom?

The blogosphere is an mutant of the real world. It mirrors the interests, pet peeves and deep dark passions of the individual, yet lacks the inhibitions of the inner self and the collective, while at the same time comes together as a collective, by medium, as the blogosphere.

It is a mutant because it lacks the inhibitions of real life. The inhibitions of the animal psyche via human morals and public shame are torn down by the anonymity of the computer. Once lacking in inhibition, mad power comes in place. The psychotic power to say and do whatever they feel like it.

Inane blogs like XiaXue feel that anything and anyone is fair game, to a certain point. Socio-political blogs feel the PAP is fair game. But in any society, blogosphere included, there will be its fair share of psychotics. Witness the racist blogs that are slowly crawling out of the woodwork. I shan’t list links lest they grow more brazen, but suffice it to say, those in the know are aware of their presence.

Who knows what drives these blogs. What drives a racist? A bad encounter? Inbreeding? Society? Who knows, and you know what, Singaporeans are by and large racist to a certain extent. However, much mutterings of racism are behind closed doors or private circles. So what makes someone come out into the public to scream and shout, “I am racist!”? Mad power.

Like any society, someone should be there to maintain peace, law and order. I guess before we panic like headless chickens and start calling for the censorship of the internet, or even knocking on the Police/ISD’s door, we should be asking ourselves, “What can we as a society do to help ourselves?”

One good answer is self-policing. Vigilante group if you like. The vast majority of the blogosphere are decent, intelligent people. These people should call out these madmen, let they, the blogosphere and the world know that there’s no place for them.

A cyber lynch mob if you will. Round them up and lynch them.

Jihadi blogs? Now that’s a whole ball of wax.

http://www.newsintercom.org/index.php?itemid=358