Singapore General Elections: Social Media

Different political parties have spent much effort in utilising social media in the hope of engaging youths in politics in Singapore, as well as to garner support for their respective parties in the 2011 Singapore General Elections. However, how successful were these campaigns? Are posters and talks more effective?

First of all, what defines social media? Social media is media used for social interaction (in this case, candidate to voter or voter to voter). Basically, it allows for the use of technology to interact with others such as blogs, forums, multimedia like photographs and video sharing, as well as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. In my opinion, social media poses many benefits to its users.

Convenience and accessibility is one key factor in social media. As compared to posters put up on lamp posts and street signs, I feel that engaging the youth in other means would be much meaningful. In the past when technology in Singapore was still on a relatively low basis, door-to-door visits and posters were the only medium of communication with the residents. However, with the rapid development of technology in Singapore, political parties should harness the potential of social media as it is more interactive as compared to posters. For me, I feel that the huge influx of posters and brochures is too large for me to handle. On every street I walk along, or at every corner I turn, I would definitely see a few political posters. Although I do agree that these posters constantly remind us to vote for the political candidates whom we feel can best serve their needs and the nation's needs, I am a little overwhelmed to the extent that I have no longer any wish to see any more of them.

Elaborating more on convenience, political leaders have little time to conduct door-to-door visits due to their busy schedules. This problem can be solved with social media. Recently, PM Lee Hsien Loong had used Facebook to chat with voters issues pertaining to the the "hot topics" in the General Election. The online chat session drew over 5000 comments in just a hour. This just shows that many youths today use social networking sites and are more free to voice their opinions online. In the door-to-door visits which candidates have conducted, I have noticed that few residents actually voice their worries and needs to the candidates, possibly due to this barrier of unfamiliarity, causing them (the residents) to be conservative in their views and opinions. The effort made by political parties by trying to directly connect with voters deserves an applaud. It shows that they are willing to go the extra mile to connect with their residents.

Former Foreign Minister George Yeo, can be said to be the most active government minister to use Facebook as a means of connecting with his citizens. His page has gotten over 80 000 "Likes" so far. His Facebook profile is regularly updated with photos and status updates to keep Singaporeans informed of his latest campaigns as well as his moments with his family. Indeed, I am more attracted by such an initiative as I get to understand our ministers better and feel a sense of warmness and belonging to them. Although Facebook is indeed an effective social tool for such purposes as above, candidates are putting themselves in a risky position by doing so. For example, the People's Action Party's youngest candidate, Ms Tin Pei Ling, has had personal photos hijacked from her personal Facebook profile and spread around the internet, and were subjected to a flurry of negative remarks from many netizens online. Candidates should explore the possible venture into the usage of social media, but should be cautious in doing so at the same time. As the leaders of Singapore are often placed in the public light for each and every of their move, they should be cautious for what they do and speak.

I do admit that social media only caters for a specific group of people, probably the Gen Y voters. In a simple survey done in my class, only about 2 pupils said that they would be interested in political parties utilising social media to engage youths in politics. I think that the main reason for such a turnout is because we (both candidates and citizens) are still fairly unfamiliar with such a platform like Facebook. I use Facebook to communicate with my friends on a personal level, and seldom use it for keeping up with current happenings or (political) news. Though this might be the current phenomenon, I do believe that in the next 5 years till the 2016 General Elections, social media will play a much huger part in engaging citizens in politics.