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The writer, Hou, is one of the two co-writers for The Students' Sketchpad.
You would probably have heard about the recent bad publicity incurred by the mainstream media over its coverage ofphenomenon blogs. To be more accurate, the has persisted since the emergence of the Singapore blogosphere.
From the events that transpired, blogging appears to be a terrible 'social ill' that is eroding the values of Singapore society: witness the Mr. Brown saga, arrests of bloggers by the Sedition Act, alleged narcissism, irresponsibility, defamation et. ali. Nothing seems good about blogging. If that is the case, why not regulate it and make all bloggers register? Even Straits Times columnist Andy Ho has recently advocated that the government should take blogs "as seriously as the mainstream media", which, given the context of his argument, strongly implies that the government should subject blogs to restrictions similar to the ones it imposes on mainstream journalists. Or better still, ban it? After all, Singapore is best known for its draconian but tried and tested laws of weeding out other problems, such as fines for spitting and the chewing gum ban.
In reality, the Singapore Government's position on the blogosphere appears to be the exact opposite. It has recently scrapped a suggestion requiring all bloggers to register with a media watchdog. In fact, the Ministry of Education is planning to organise a blogging competition next month. It would seem that the government is not only clamping down on blogging, it might even be said to encourage the activity--at least to some degree?
If the Government actually encourages blogging, then there must be something right about blogging. Ironically enough, Ho's justifications on why restrictions should be imposed on bloggers contains clues as to why the Government might not only not restrict blogging, but even encourage it:
"...blogging provides an opportunity for citizens to reflect on their place in the world and develop solidarity with and communicate their needs, demands or desires to others...", and that it "...is not about joining a protest group or going to a demonstration" but "about developing a personal voice through which to make sense of the world, both for oneself and for one's community..."In other words, blogging allows citizens avenue to participate in civil discourse without going out onto the street, and it can promote social cohesion through trading of voices. Remember Gayle Goh, who expressed views antithetical to that of a minister on her blog? What if all these blogs did not exist in the first place? Should we turn our clock back 20 years, and just simply return to being apathetic to issues that matter to us? Or worse still, turn our clock back 40 years and take to the streets when things become unbearable rather than attempt to resolve matters by public debate"?
Furthermore, this is an avenue where one can find a diversity views from every part of Singapore society. Nor should we forget that the demands of education in Singapore generally encourages (and in few cases, make it imperative for) students to blog as it improves on their writing abilities.
The mainstream media in Singapore must have seen all this as a threat to their readership and what they stand for, and are fighting back tooth and nail. While the blogosphere is still very much in its infancy and mainstream media still commanding its massive readership, the latter is hitting out against the bloggers while they can. Since much of the reading public do not usually bother to check out the bloggers' side of the story every thing the mainstream hits out, they tend to take the mainstream media's viewpoint at face value.
This reminds me of the situation in the 1970s, when big US airlines attempted to keep Southwest Airlines grounded through the use of lawsuits before its first budget flight, at all costs. Another airline even tried suggesting that flying Southwest was an embarrassment. The response? A witty advertisement, not alien to the traits of several popular bloggers out there.
In the end, Southwest Airlines took off with a vengeance, and today it is one of the world's most profitable airlines. The Singapore blogosphere, despite its under flak, shall repeat this feat. In the meantime, all that the mainstream media can simply do is to continually try and convince its audience that blogging is that undesirable.
