Lianhe Zaobao, Saturday 20 Sept 2008
Mr Brown (Blogger Lee Kin Mun)’s hilarious “Bak Chor Mee” blog post shot to fame two years ago just before the General Elections. This incident made Chinese paper readers who usually do not surf the internet start to notice the presence of new media.
Since PM Lee Hsien Loong announced the intention to liberalise the internet and new media hemisphere in the National Day Rally, the government-commissioned new media working group has also expressed in their report that the government should pay more attention to the voices of web users. In addition, they also recommended that the government should examine how to better use the new media communication channel to connect with web users.
The newspapers readers who do not participate in online forums may have the impression that web users have a uniform voice, just like the government uses a uniform approach to propagate its ideologies and policies. Some readers are only aware of the existence of Mr Brown or assume that most bloggers are similar to him.
On the contrary, the blogosphere and mainstream society are the same. They are a common space formed by people with varied viewpoints, inclinations, parties, objectives and temperaments.
If newspaper readers receive emails occasionally from their friends which includes hyperlinks to certain blogs, short videos or critiques that claim to shed the light on certain issues or uncover the wrongdoings of certain political figures, please do not believe them readily, or assume all web users think the same way. Other web users may also have strong opposing opinions, and thus various conspiracy theories and personal attacks abound.
Local English current affairs website “theonlinecitizen.com” is a recent example. This blog was set up after the last General Elections and covers news, interest topics, current affairs comics, columns and even translates part of the articles to mandarin to enlarge its reader base. It offers an alternative view to politics and mainstream media reports and is one of the top local websites of its kind.
However, this week someone resurfaced the conspiracy theories that were the hot topic in february earlier this year in the forum sammyboy.com. The user claimed that the persons in charge of “theonlinecitizen.com” are secretly put in place by PAP to act as internet spies. Allegedly, they offer alternative opinions on the surface, but in reality do not attack the key government blog sites.
The writer went on to claim that mainstream media were listening to instructions from ‘above’ to support “theonlinecitizen.com” and help it to gain popularity and therefore cause the genuine anti-government blogs to lose favour with web users.
These writers also pointed out that the person behind “theonlinecitizen.com” , Andrew Loh had switched allegiance from the PAP to WP and now no longer with WP. The other founder, Choo Zhengxi (NUS Law Faculty undergraduate) had previously worked as the speech writer for the West Coast GRC nominee He Yu Chu, drawing a salary of $500 for five consecutive months. Last but not least, one of the editors of “theonlinecitizen.com”, Liu Chuan Zhi (SMU Political Science undergraduate) is a member of Young PAP and have participated in various grassroots activites and maintains the same blog with the Foreign Affairs Minister.
The writers also highlighted that since the last elections, PAP has established a new media working group headed by the education minister and one of its objectives is to establish 20 communications representatives to participate in online forums and blogs to deflect and object to anti-government messages. It’s claimed that “theonlinecitizen.com” is one of its products.
This sounds like an exciting scene right out of the popular Hong Kong movie “Infernal Affairs”. When interviewed yesterday, the founders of “theonlinecitizen.com” denied that they were a propagation tool set up by PAP. Andrew Loh mentioned that they always used their real names in these activities and had nothing to hide, in contrast to the forum writers who hide behind anonymity.
This is just one of the methods on the internet to ‘dish dirt’ on and slander others. The real truth is of no interest to non web users. However, such online furore has brought to question the issue of whether web space can tolerate moderate, non-extremist opinions.
People who are anti-government likes to congregate in web forums, because they feel that mainstream media does not give them an opportunity to air their views. Hence, they are intolerant of any pro-government voices in such forums. Political blogs and forum topics are frequently critical towards policies, the government and PAP. On top of this, some web users feel that moderate viewpoints have no ‘marketability’ and the arguments that draw the most attention are the most harsh and extremist arguments. Thus, sites like “theonlinecitizen.com” which are moderate and non-confrontational are thus labelled as pro-government.
Highly anti-government web users not only gauge blogs by such benchmarks, they also ask the same of opposition parties. The Workers Party, who successfully placed two members in Parliament, is widely acknowledged as the most successful opposition party, but in the internet world, it is slammed by a small group of web users. They claim that giving WP a vote is equivalent to giving PAP a vote.
During the last elections, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen gave the Workers’ Party a degoratory nickname – ”Wayang Party” (Wayang Kulit Party) which prompted blogger Fang Zhi Yuan to set up a blog named wayangparty.wordpress.com to criticise WP, along with all the other Singaporean opposition parties for doing nothing except putting up a ”wayang’ or ’show’ for Singapore citizens to watch. Fang felt that these opposition parties do not dare to seek redress for the citizens or speak out against the PAP. They are merely there to help PAP validate their claim that Singapore parliament is not a one party monopoly, thereby legitimatizing their authoritarian rule.
However, when some bloggers who blog on current affairs were interviewed, they opined that they will not be demoralised by the small group of extremist views and do not agree that fierce online arguments showed that local web users were immature.
National Solidarity Party leader Mr Goh Meng Seng （singaporealternatives.blogspot.com） said “Extremist viewpoints may draw the attention of people and garner the support of other extremists, but most web users will still want to hear balanced, moderate, mature arguments. This is also the reason why the SDP website is rapidly losing its readers.”
Mr Goh was thrust into the web forums arguments more than one year ago and was forced to leave the “Worker’s Party”, but he does not feel that such extremists online arguments will hinder the general development and maturity of web forum users. “If the web only allowed one form of viewpoint, then it would be no different from communism”.
Mr Zhu has adopted a calm attitude towards the personal attacks against him on online forums. “When someone criticises my opinions of current affairs, I will treat their opinions seriously and debate with him actively. However, I will not be bothered if they launch personal attacks.”
Original Chinese article:
Mr Brown（博客李健敏）令人捧腹大笑的“肉脞面”播客，在两年前的大选期间一炮而红，让许多不常上网的华文报读者也第一次注意到新媒体的存在。
自从李显龙总理在国庆群众大会上表示要开放新媒体空间之后，由政府委任的新媒体咨询理事会也已在所发表的报告书中，建议政府用心聆听网民的声音，并且研究该如何善用新媒体与网民接触。
没参与网络舆论的报纸读者也许会有这样的印象，就如政府有一套上下连贯、横竖统一的思想和说法，即网民的声音也是单一且鲜明的。一些读者也许只认识Mr Brown一个博客，或以为所有的博客都跟他差不多。
其实，网络空间和普通社会是一样的，是一个由不同观点、倾向、派系、目的、脾气的人组成的共同空间。“网民”不是单一、综合的个体，而是分化、分歧的群体。
报纸读者如果偶尔收到朋友传来的电邮，电邮上贴上某某网民的 播客、短片或评论，披露某某事件的“真相”或揭发某某政治人物的“恶行”，可别太快信以为真，或以为所有网民都这么想。因为其他网民也许会有很强烈的相反 意见，于是种种被指为阴谋论的谣言和人身攻击，也开始流传。
本地英文时事评论网站“网络公民”（theonlinecitizen.com）是一个最近的例子。这个博客网是在上一次大选后成立，除了有新闻和专题报道、时事漫画、专栏评论等，也把部分文章翻译成华文，以扩大读者群，对政策和主流媒体的报道提出尖锐批评，点击率在本地同类网站中算是数一数二。
但是，本周有人在热门网络论坛（sammyboy.com）上重提今年二月已炒过一轮的阴谋论。匿名者声称“网络公民”的几名负责人受到人民行动党的幕后主使，是行动党派来渗透互联网的卧底，终极目的是制造一个表面上提出另类观点，但实际上却不攻击政府要害的博客网站。
匿名者称主流媒体因接到“上面”的指示而力捧“网络公民”，使它大受网民欢迎并得以攻下网络空间，以致“真正”批评政府的博客网站失去读者。
这些匿名者还指出，创办人卢鸿佩是从行动党青年团跳槽到工人党青年团的，现在也已离开工人党。另一名创办人朱正熙（新加坡国立大学法律系学生）则曾经当过西海岸集选区议员何玉珠的国会讲稿写手，连续五个月领了每个月500元的津贴。而“网络公民”的编辑之一黎传智（新加坡管理大学政治系学生）则是行青团团员，不但参与基层活动，也跟外交部长杨荣文经营同一个博客。
匿名者也指出，行动党自上届大选过后成立了由教育部长黄永宏医生领导的新媒体委员会，任务之一就是派出20名信息科技达人，以匿名方式进军网络论坛和博客，以驳斥反政府的言论。“网络公民”就是这个委员会的“产品”之一。
这个有如电影《无间道》式的情节，听起来既耸动又刺激。当事人昨天受询时，否认了“网络公民”是行动党工具的说法。卢鸿佩说，他们几个人都以真实姓名写作并参加活动，没有见不得光的勾当，反而对方始终保持匿名，不愿露面。
这只是网上多种“扔泥巴”，以诬蔑别人的其中一种行为，真相到底是什么，网外人也许不会知道，也没太大兴趣知道。不过，这场小骂战却带出了有趣的思考，即网络空间是否能容忍温和的观点？
反政府的人喜欢聚集在网络论坛，因为他们认为主流媒体没有容 下他们的空间。他们于是无法容忍网络空间里有非反政府的言论。政治博客和论坛上的言论倾向批评政策、政府和行动党，少数网民则认为温和的评论没有市场，批 评越尖锐越刺耳，才越能引起共鸣，并吸引眼球。而像“网络公民”这类尝试以较理性、四平八稳的写法呈献观点的博客，则容易被扣上“捧政府”的帽子。
反政府情绪高昂的网民，不但对博客有这样的审核标准，对反对党也有同样的要求。将两名议员送入国会的工人党，被公认为本地最成功的反对党，但在网络空间里却受到一小撮网民唾弃。他们打出“投工人党一票，就等于投行动党一票”的标语。
黄永宏在上一次大选时称工人党（Workers’ Party）为“Wayang Party”（皮影戏党），批评该党光说不练。网民方志远也套用这个词，设立了wayangparty.wordpress.com，批评工人党以及所有新加坡民主党以外的反对党，都只是在跟执政党一起做戏给人民看。他认为反对党都不敢为民请愿，没有实质的反对效用，反而让行动党可以理所当然地说“你看，国会里有反对党，我们不是一党独大”。
不过，几名评论时事的博客受访时，都表示不会因受到少数偏激网民的攻击而灰心，他们也不认为骂战的出现意味着本地网民还不够成熟。
团结党中委吴明盛（singaporealternatives.blogspot.com）说：“偏激的言论也许能哗众取宠，博得一些立场本来就偏激的人拍手叫好，但大多数网民要看的还是客观、成熟的评论，这就是评论一面倒的新加坡民主党网站已大量流失读者的原因。”
他一年多前因卷入网络论坛的骂战而被逼退出工人党，但他也不认为类似涉及“网络公民”的骂战，足以阻挠网络社群的成熟与发展。“如果网络上只允许一把声音，那跟共产党没两样。”
朱正熙也对匿名者在网络论坛上所做的人身攻击处之泰然。“当有人批评我对时事课题所提出的看法时，我会认真地看待并积极同他谈论。但是，如果对方是批评我个人，我才懒得理。”
jaslyngo | 
09 25th, 2008| 
