1. Cherian George – “PM’s National Day Rally Calls for more rational online spaces”
“PM Lee’s wish for open, balanced and reasonable online spaces requires a cultural change on the part of the establishment as well. The government will need to find within itself the capacity to respect the role of independent websites as convenors of Singapore’s online politics.”
Quite aptly, PM Lee’s comments on ‘cowboy towns’ has stirred up a lot of online controversy.
2. Andrew Loh, “Patching up holes as we go along”
“To me, the National Day Rally did not reflect a Prime Minister speaking from a position of power. It reflected a Prime Minister frightened and bullied by the electorate.” [quoted from his friend’s blog]
On a side-note, I was really quite perturbed when all I could find on the online media was criticism (rather harsh ones too) of the NDP Rally and no recognition of the efforts made by the PAP to engage its citizens more meaningfully. This week, at the Teachers’ Mass Lecture, it was commented during the Q&A session that critical thinking is viewed commonly as being ‘critical about the government’ and I warned my students against this too. There aren’t enough quality blog entries with balanced, keen insight to support government policies written online to counter this wave of anti-government blogging.
I found Chua Mui Hoong’s commentary on the Monday Straits Times rather heartening though as she struck a balance between highlighting what was done well (‘impressively speedy responses to ground unhappiness’ etc.) yet at the same time pointing out the rather ‘insular’ nature of the Rally which didn’t focus on the Presidential Election, the debt crisis etc.
Of course, most people are so cynical about Straits Times now that they see it as a ‘tool of government propaganda’, but after reading so many online blogs and alternative news websites, I find the Straits Times to be one of the more reliable sources of news that contains credible commentary that doesn’t try to shove its perspectives on you.
