Young PAP v2.009

Young PAP v2.009

Friday • April 3, 2009

Loh Chee Kong

cheekong@mediacorp.com.sg

HAVING made forays into Facebook and online multimedia, the ruling party is now taking the cyber-battle for hearts and minds up another notch. Its youth wing is set to launch an offensive in the weeks ahead, with a revamped website that could feature a more prominent no-holds-barred forum, lively rebuttals by party activists to online chatter, and provocative essays by external writers.

Today understands that the broad strokes of the changes have been communicated to Young People’s Action Party (YP) cadres down to the branch level; and several internal discussions have been conducted since November to solicit views on how to more effectively engage Netizens.

When contacted, YP chief Teo Ser Luck confirmed initiatives would be rolled out “soon”. Tight-lipped on the specifics, he would only say: “When I took over YP, I wanted to make sure there’s an embrace of diversity of views. So, you will see more diversity and more participation.”

The proposed changes come five months after the PAP website underwent a makeover to include podcasts and videos, and 17 months after the party’s newsletter Petir was revamped to include articles from former civil servants and analysts.

Currently, the YP — whose membership is below age 40 — publishes most of the articles penned by members on its blog and the website, while leveraging on Facebook to draw eyeballs. Some have sparked sharp exchanges with non-partisan Netizens and opposition members. For instance, one article headlined “The Ever-Redundant Opposition” written last August by YP member Nicholas Lazarus, drew a slew ofpositive and negative comments on the ruling party’s political dominance. It spun off into a discussion, which still sees activity, on YP’s Facebook account.

Interestingly, a few who identified themselves as YP or PAP members disagreed with Mr Lazarus’ assertions. And Nanyang Technological University political scientist Ho Khai Leong believes, it is such diversity of views that the YP would try to showcase.

The youth wing is more likely to succeed, he thinks, if it comes across to Netizens as acknowledging the “need for pluralistic views on public affairs and policies”, rather than simply out to counter perceived “irrational, destructive criticism”.

“It is the realisation that you can’t expect young people to accept everything you say,” said Associate Professor Ho.

Still, Dr Terence Chong wonders if the YP’s online revamp would succeed in drawing eyeballs from other socio-political websites, which are often critical of the Government and the ruling party. How candid or radical can YP members afford to be in their views?

Pointing to the few websites currently pushing the envelope, Dr Chong, a research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, said: “At the end of the day, the party activists have to toe the party line. We’ll have to wait and see how the dynamics play out.”

Also being overhauled is the joint “P65” blog set up two years ago by the 12 post-1965 Members of Parliament. The blog will take a backseat to the revamped website and Facebook as YP’s platforms of choice.

Mr Teo said: “Definitely we are making some changes. Not just the P65 blog, we are looking through the different sites and seeing what we can do better, after two years.”

Meanwhile, other changes are coming on the PAP’s own website.

For one, the party’s Public Policy Forum, which holds regular policy dialogues between party members and senior PAP cadres including Ministers, will post online “short synopsis of what transpired” at these sessions — sans sensitive party information, forum chairman Satwant Singh told Today.

Besides updating the website to “stay relevant”, the new initiative will give the public a better sense of what goes on behind the closed doors of such sessions, saidMr Singh. More changes could be on the way as discussions are ongoing, he added.

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