LV SMU Publication: The New Paper, p 12 Date: 13 March 2011 Headline: Party's on ... line

vj PART S ON ... LINE More political parties here are jumping on the social media bandwagon to keep the public updated on their actkities. But will their presence online help them in the coming GE?

REPORTS: MAUREEN KOH, RAE TAN for us anyway. and TAM SU FERNE "Therefore, a physical presence is more impor- mph.Com.Sg tant and that's why the Reform Party does so much

outreach, for example, walkabouts and meeting

T HE updates come fast and regularly, com- people at food c o w . plete with pictures, detailed notes at times "We definitely need a physical presence to and even comments. bring more people to us and we've been doing it

And for some, l i k MS Denise Phua, an MP for nearly two years now." for Jalan Besar GRC, it can even be a personal Other opposition parties contacted declined to anecdote. elaborate on their online strategies but agreed that

Ms Phua had shared recently, on her Facebook the social media have an impactw account, her elation over how her "special-needs on the coming ~~~~~~l ~ l ~ c t i ~ ~ . son, who is not veryverbal, stopped me this morn- one member, who declined to be named, cited ingto askmeariddle ...". a recent report in The Straits Times, which said

Barely 10 minutes later, it attracted 13 likes. that a key change in the training sessions for PAP'S ~ndeed, meet-the-people sessions on the new was the of les-

ground no longer work a schedule. sons on how to deal with new media and engage the advent of social media, it can now be a daily or in a measured yet way online. even an hourly affair via Facebook and Twitter.

Ms Phua said she was initially reluctant to inter- act with the public on Facebook, "thinking it Impact would be intrusive and I will lose my privacy fur- The opposition member said: "Even the PAP ther". She added: "However, after deciding that it have introduced such lessons, so that tells you is a media I will need in my public role, I decided to something, doesn't it?" use Facebook positively as a communication plat- ~n P:xfiament on Thursday, nominated MP form to share what I feel strongly about and what I a- Cheng pointed out ('the impact of the Inter- believe in, for example, helping the disadvan- net and the Internet generation will be difficult to taged ..." predict in the next election".

Still, she is careful about what she shares about H, added: "The young may not bother turning her personal life, which is " U S U ~ ~ about my spe- up at rallies, but you can be sure that they will cial-needs son because I want to encourage other to the Internet to gather every bit of infomation families in similar plight not to be ashamed of their they can find." disabled children and for others to accept them in M, E~~~~~ T ~ , a law at the singa- society". pore Management University, does not think that

Other than two-thirds of the current People's parties' online presence really shape the elec- Action Party PAP) MPs who have online stakes, tions this year. the Workers' Pa*, the Refom Party and the He said: "Maybe I'm a little old school, but 1 Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) are most active think you can win an election by letting your among the opposition parties. fingers do all the work."

Posts on the political parties' Facebook pages But he that the new media plat- and Twitter feeds are regularly updated. form will play a more prominent role than it did in

RP secretary-general Kenneth Jeyaremam told the 2006 GE. The New Paper on Sunday "I don't know the It's very much a part of the percentage of the population that uses Face- book, but the people who go to our Face-

political and social culture in Singapore today, es-

book page are probabwthose who will vote pecially among the

BEFBY BtT: MP Denise Phua is careful about what she shares online and it's usually about her autistic son's progress.

TNP FILE PICTURE

young, he said. It also provides

candidates with a high public visibility and immediacy.

Soffle parties on social media site!

Source: The New Paper O Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction.