Singapore Politics enters Social Media Era

As the Singapore Election Polls heat ups (Tomorrow is Nomination Day!), this year’s battleground seems to be virtual. The social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have been used by both PAP and the oppositions even before the battle has officially started. It’s definitely giving the people an additional “voice” channel that have been seemingly lacking in past elections. To the opposition, i guess this is the perfect “weapon”, a god’s gift literally to years of suppressed voice. They are definitely making greater use of this medium by using the channel to represent the people’s voices in some of the social issues. At a glance, it would seemed the oppositions are making better headway on this channel but this is not a foregone battle yet. PAP has its own supporters built up over these years and its grassroots support is tremendous

Whatever the political outcome, (i just hope i finally have a chance to vote this year!) that’s another blog altogether (not creativewrestle.com). But from a digital advocate point of view, i am just glad some principles that we used as oasis interactive’s discipline are evident case studies in Singapore 2011 Elections. Here are some of those.

source from fuse.tv

 

 

 

1) SG 2011 Election. 0% Incentives  100% Influence.
Coincidently, every Singaporean should have received a tidy sum in their bank just a couple of days before the nomination day. No one’s complaining but i highly suspect if this will swing votes towards the ruling party. Incentive is not a motivating factor here.  Also in a recent case, an online Facebook contest meant for Nee Soon residents to recognize their MPs was suspended. Seriously… what were they thinking..

 

2) You can’t grow your digital popularity through other means
Nicole Seah is a bit of a revelation this election. Even her “sweat it out walkabout” has generated a full forum thread.

3) Getting Re-tweeted is not a representation of your popularity.

This is funny. Apparently, PAP has a twitter account and was “broadcasting” to get more “likes” for their Facebook page. Pat Law, also a fellow digital advocate (see goodstuph) casually asked “why?”. The PAP twitter replied “..so you can see more photos of Tan Pei Ling and help us have more outreach. This, apparently caught the eyes of many netizens and there were many re-tweets.

Instead of realizing that they have been drawn the joker card, this was sent out.