Singapore Govt should engage online for forums
By Lynn Lee
FROM paying taxes to renewing road tax, the Government has led the way in offering e-services to people here.
But its approach to interacting with Singaporeans online has been decidedly more conservative.
Yesterday, it was urged to change tack, and ramp up efforts to engage an increasingly tech-savvy population, or risk putting them off as well as losing touch with them and their concerns.
This call came from a panel appointed by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts to study the impact of new media on Singapore.
In a wide-ranging report released yesterday, the 13-member panel said that greater online engagement of Singaporeans was one of four pressing issues the Government needed to deal with, as it grapples with the changing face of new media.
To start, it could participate in online conversations, like responding to posting on blogs or online forums, said the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (Aims) in its 95-page report. The report is available at www.aims.org.sg
Elaborating on it at a press conference, panel chairman Cheong Yip Seng said his view was that online petitions and forum letters on The Straits Times website (www.straitstimes.com) should also be taken seriously.
‘If it’s a seriously considered opinion, though posted only online, my colleagues and I feel that the Government should engage,’ said Mr Cheong, a former editor-in-chief of Singapore Press Holdings’ English and Malay Newspapers Division.
The panel also had other recommendations.
They include training civil servants to respond to online comments - a different kettle of fish from writing press statements or letters to mainstream media.
Aims also felt people would need to be shown that their online feedback is being taken seriously. One oft-heard criticism was that it went into a ‘black hole’.
Finally, the council urged the Government to actively consult young people by setting up a youth panel.
It did not specify the age of panel members or its composition, but said they could act as ‘feelers’ for the Government by highlighting latest trends in computing and social networking, threats to youth and other cyber-safety issues.
On its part, the Government would have to think through its approach to online engagement, said Mr Cheong.
‘How do you engage? Do you respond to anonymous blogs? Do you only go to places in cyberspace that are more habitable? These are important details, I feel, that the Government should carefully study,’ he said.
Institute of Policy Studies researcher Tan Tarn How likened the Government’s approach to online engagement as ‘crossing the river by feeling each stone’.
This, he said, was prudent as such initiatives are new even in the most advanced countries elsewhere.
‘Making sure the first experiments here are successes will be essential in nipping any cynicism in the bud,’ he said.
Source : Straits Times - 30 Aug 2008
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