Does Internet and Politics match up well?

Singapore, a country famed for its "fine" laws and suffocating restrictions on a whole range of issues, from littering to speech freedom. With the increasing dominance and popularity of online media, the government has loosened its previously stringent political regulations a few years back in order to accommodate to the increasing demand and pressure from opposition parties as well as the general public. However, there are still limitations imposed on the use of internet for political purposes, as then Minister for Information and the Arts Lee Yock Suan said "the anonymity of the Internet opens a door for surreptitious elements to mislead, distract and confuse the public."

Indeed, the view of "online equals free" has put online media in a delicate situation. What needs to be put into perspective is the concern of opportunity costs. Maintaining websites are never easy, much less a political website in the climate of fear in Singapore where fundings are hard to come by. Most Singaporeans are apathetic towards politics, their indifferent attitude makes it difficult to engage them through the internet since people tend to go to sites that interest them. In addition to that, the subject of subjectivity is something that we should not overlook. No journalist can claim that his or her opinions are objective, everyone including journalists from the mainstream media will have his/her own opinions which might not necessarily be objective.

More recently in 2008, Dr James Gomez (Workers' Party) published his PhD thesis from the Monash University, Melbourne titled "Democracy and Elections: The Impact of Online Politics in Singapore". In it, he argued that the electoral system in Singapore is impervious to the impact of the internet. His analysis of voting patterns and election results over the past 3 general elections in 1997, 2001 and 2006 reflected that there was no correlation between the use of internet by various opposition parties and their performance at the polls. This despite the fact that internet penetration rate in Singapore had leaped from 14% in 1997 to 71% in 2006. His doubts are not unfounded, despite online media having great potential of gaining significant mindshare from the mainstream media. The political climate in Singapore has been very harsh towards opposition parties, even with regulation changes the hostility still exists. While the potential of online media remains promising, there remains a lot of obstacles that stand in the way of exploiting the full benefits of it.