~Editorial~
It started with the President’s Address to open Parliament, continued with the addenda to the President’s Address from the Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, and did not stop when ministers and MPs delivered their speeches. They all touched on the Internet.
Many discussed the perceived problems with online speech as if all online speech was equally irresponsible, and argued for more regulation over the Internet; the MINLAW and MICA addenda certainly suggested that tougher regulations may be on the way. Some touched on the need for the Government to do better at engaging the online community. A few defended it.
As one of the leading online platforms for Singaporeans to speak out, The Online Citizen believes that new regulations are unnecessary. The online community can moderate itself, and TOC has done so in the past and continues to do so. Even if many parts of the Internet are irresponsible, some parts are already responsible, and the Government must acknowledge this before even beginning to think of online regulation in a sensible manner.
Can new regulation even work?
This apparent new position by the Government represents a retreat from its longstanding “light touch” approach to online regulation. Despite the flaws in its implementation, this “light touch” approach has largely worked, because it was a pragmatic response to the nebulousness and dynamism of the Internet.
It has only been a mere three years since the Government accepted most of the recommendations of the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (AIMS) in 2008. While TOC does not agree with all of AIMS’s conclusions, we do acknowledge that AIMS had consulted widely and had sought to be fair and balanced.
The Government has not articulated any cogent argument, as to how and why the AIMS report was inadequate or what has changed. Since only the political landscape has changed, we can only conclude that any new attempt to regulate the Internet is a response to the ruling party’s poor performance in this year’s General Elections.
The Government should remember that top-down regulation of the Internet, both in Singapore and around the world, has consistently failed. The sheer multiplicity of cyberspace ensures the closing of one site is likely to be met by the blossoming of another ten. When the people want to speak up, we will, regardless of the hurdles the Government tries to put in our way.
Our standards
The Government and various MPs seem to suggest that there are no rules or standards on the Internet. They could not be more wrong.
For instance, TOC has always taken a strong view on anonymity. Most TOC contributions are by bylined or named persons, and we allow pseudonyms only when we know the actual identity of the writer and there is a reason for the pseudonym.
We have always done our best to moderate comments, and we have a firm stand of deleting comments we come across which we identify as being in breach of our moderation policy. We have also banned users who persistently breach our policy, on both our main website and Facebook page.
Our moderation policy is not new, and has been an integral part of TOC for years. In the formulation of each and every one of our policies, we have done our best to adhere to our core values.
But we are not the only socio-political site to have done so. Other websites have also adopted their own principles and values. The Government’s attempt to generalise cyberspace as being uniformly irresponsible is in itself irresponsible, by ignoring the efforts of all the websites that have sought to positively contribute to Singapore.
The same cannot be said about some officially-sanctioned sites, such as the Young PAP Facebook page, which allows anonymous, not even pseudonymous, postings. Even as the ruling party talks about imposing new regulations, its own members have behaved in a manner that MICA has deemed irresponsible. Again, we can only conclude that this new direction by MICA is nothing more than an attempt to muzzle the Government’s most outspoken critics.
The way forward is in the hands of Singaporeans
Diversity in cyberspace is essential for its growth and evolution. Each site should be allowed to adopt the standards and approaches that it is comfortable with, and then readers will decide which sites are worth their time.
Ultimately, a free Internet is critical to the flowering of Singaporeans’ political consciousness. The Government has to decide if this is a good thing. But let us be clear: any effort to clamp down on the Internet in the name of “promoting responsibility”, is merely a disguised attempt by the Government to extend its existing control over traditional media to online media, or otherwise discredit online media as being unreliable, destructive or divisive.
Our political leaders are barking up the wrong tree. They are still caught up in the elections, thinking of how to win the next one. They need to understand that their old tactics of control and fear no longer work.
More importantly, the polls are over, and we now urgently need to focus on policy-making to benefit Singaporeans. The diverse conversations online can actually help the Government in doing this – if only it would accept the sincerity of its critics. We do what we do, only because we care for Singapore and Singaporeans.
And that is our promise to our readers. TOC will continue to advance and speak up for the interests of Singaporeans, on issues that affect us and matter to us. We have always been, and will continue to be, a community of committed Singaporeans who care. We don’t always succeed in meeting our own standards, but we will always try.
As one MP has said, online media is here to stay, and Singaporeans are going to speak up. The Government can work with Singaporeans to make it a meaningful conversation, or it can try — futilely — to scare us into silence. But regardless of the Government’s choice, we will not be cowed, and our voices will be heard.
HELP keep the voice of TOC alive!
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so,what will our WP MPs say in Parliament on this matter?
OPPO have been helped in the GE with the unbias reporting of TOC n others like TRE as MSM is mostly one-sided n lop-sided.
will the WP MPs now stand up and speak out n up for true blue singaporeans who sopported them?
this may look like a parochial subject but it is in fact the voice of all voiceless common singaporeans.
@speck
Please take a break. For you the world is prettier because you have the resources that is the money power to use. For us who work 12 hours a day for our daily bread and who don’t even have time to attend the protest at Raffles Place this is only way to express our opinions. Hv a wonderful break but please do think of us Singaporeans who are left in the bottom rung of choices.
The founder TRE got embroiled in a scandal and THEY got a hold on him.
Curbing the internet will be tried by all means, including a new anti-pap blog which slowly morphing itself to the Papies policies. It includes infilitrating some existing successful blogs. All are possible because money talks.
LATEST DIRECTIVES
Curb the Social Media by all means and do it early, well before the next elections so that the daft Singaporeans forget.
Increase the influx of foriegners by all means and make them Singaporeans to influence the voters base by about 10% at least.
Meanwhile all Papies keep blowing hot and cold to confuse the electorate.
let them go ahead & impose the great internet firewall, to their own dismay.
the PM apologised before may 7th because it was obvious from the social media that the ground was terribly not sweet.
this time if they drive social media underground then there will be no feedback. and after polling day they will discover to their great horror the groundswell against them.
The Commonwealth Meeting of heads of states of former British colonies is currently convened in Australia with a key agenda on protection of human rights.
Based on the past records of detentions of political dissidents without trial, it is clear that Singapore is accountable for its human right abuses.
Wonder if the 16 Marxist detainees have sent a notice to this meeting to register a complaint about such abuses.
The organisers were not effective in promoting and visually not being present. If it is better organised I am sure there would have a good attendance.
I had seen Singaporeans acting for their cause when Lawyer Ravintharan and Sinapore Indians led a protest against the preceived injustice on their Taipusam event at the Hong Lim Park. I also saw ISD/Police Officers begging the protesters to disperse from the venue. This prompted the Papies to answer the concerns of the Protesters in their MSM and the event I heard went on smoothly as per the wishes of the protesters. If you want it you should go get it.
So the Organisers must be brave and stand their ground and of course the rest will follow.
Singaporeans had the opportunity twice to make a real difference for Singapore in PE and GE. However they have chose twice the WORST possible outcome without thinking of the consequences. They only have themselves to blame now the tag team has been formed and for a start started to close the loop on online free speech. Singaporeans are only getting a taste of what much more is going to come.
Occupy raffo place,
Its not possible for ppl to occupy anywhere .
Anywhere but spore.
If u ask ppl they will say, what is that? Can makan or not? Got freebie or not ? Why should i attend? What is in it for me? Got gimme free parkg not? Got money be made or not?
Or why stick your neck out for others? Self interest in everything we do. Not my pasar. U die your problem. I run n hide first. Or
WHERE GOT TIME?
Problem with internet is lack of respect. Instead of giving credit to our leaders for their immense achievements, netizens bash them. Our leaders have shown brilliant judgment, and without them, we won’t survive. Too many baseless accusations against our great leaders on the internet, and if not stopped, the ISD should step in & arrest all these rumour mongers.
does bs stand for bullshit?
@T
Love your post. It is so true. I wonder if this is result of Sg uneducation system, also demonstrated by the poster ‘bs’ after you. I was like that till I returned from being properly educated overseas.
It is truly disappointing that PAP members are so shallow. Instead of addressing the macro and “real” issues that is a result of widespread dissatisfaction, anger and discontentment with policies, its poor leadership in its camp and sheer utter arrogance and ignorance, they are spending wasteful time seeking to find ways to muzzle the internet…pathetic
@bs
Oh our bs has reminded us to be ever grateful to the Papies for giving us our daily bread, a roof to be rented, a vehicle to be loaned, a cpf to be held, an education to be competed with the fts.
Papies had been brilliant in:-
1. confiscating 10,000 hdb homes of Singaporeans and leaving them on the streets.
2. for having 1.2 million people on charity list.
3. for giving free scholarship to 20% of foreigners in the Local universities so that our children can learn how to compete.
4. for continuing to import foreign talents to become Singaporeans despite the mass rejection claiming a trajectory of 2050 decrease in population.
5. for creating wealth and not having the heart to distribute to those who less successful. …. the least can go on on…
So as bs (bullshit) says lets thank the Papies brilliance.
Screwing around with cyberspace debating space in so few popular but moderated platforms in Singapore and expecting that not to backfire?
What if the ‘ants” of angst all start up their blogs – maybe half a million or more angry “netizens” all ventilate their blogs and facebooks – in uncontrolled anger and maybe not equally informed without moderation of sane voices on the same popular public platform? Is the power that be then going to shut down the entire internet?
It is unlike moving moving from a regime of self-regulated protected sex to unprotected sex to curb the spread of HIV and STDs. Why did they “licenced” Geylang?
You can condom public speech on platforms you don’t approve of but you can’t condom the mushrooming of even more infectious platforms?. People in cyberspace will henceforth be just shouting anger of varied intelligence, knowledge and awareness across a whole spectrum of bloggers.
YOU CAN’T LEGISLATE PUBLIC INTELLIGENCE AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS – what benchmark?.
Let them try and see how badly it will backfire of uncontrollable and uncontainable consequences. Once, they lit the prairie fire, the wild wind will fan its spread out of control to burn all inhabiting this land.
Want to regulate. I think it show how naive the miw are. It’s like trying to weed out porn on the net or wipe out the world’s oldest profession. Push too hard , you will see more sites hosting more extreme views further away.
http://www.temasekreview.net/
Why is it so hard for the authorities to see that the social media, especially the micro-blogs are a conversation. When people comment they are immediate thoughts, responses, arguments, rebuttals, etc. The emotional content is often high. It is this mix of emotions and facts that makes social media content rich and useful for the analyzing the feeling of the participants. Feeling drive behavior in more ways that people in authority think. Marketing people realize this much more than people in govt and have been able to data mine the feeling variables in social media to help in the position of their products and offers to their targeted audience. There are of course different varieties of social media…some are more lime an exchange of letters, other more conversational. The techniques to analyse the content of social media differs for each and every social media facility.
I did visit countries of the middle east a few months before the up-risings. The hatred for their leaders is palpable. A Jordanian woman told me things that I thought highly unlikely at that time. Now, a year later, three of these exceptionally divine rulers have been driven from their thrones. One emerged from a sewer pipe begging for mercy. Who in this world would have thought that it could come to this? Like Charles Lamb recounting Shakespeare’s tragedies,I leave you, my gentle readers to draw your own conclusions.
In this time and age, where scientific technological progress is powering ahead, where the emphasis is more on the intellect, controlling or zipping up the voice of it’s citizens in whatever way, is a sad testimony of the low political immaturity of the ruling clique apparently still clinging and living in the past.
The gov is starting movements to clamp down on internet dicussions, coming soon to be discussed lies on the ineternet behind the computer screen on channel news asia. These is rergressing, instead of clamping down on ineternet, the gov should clamp down on her own unppopular doings. I am not hiding from the computer screen, I gave my real name; u can even have my email add ; azizks19@hotmail.com. If I were the ruling party, instead of waiting for election 5 years, y not having once a year, the popularities of their parties. If there is further percentage drops, than the ruling parties can make changes before it is too late, donot trust the grass roots. This will prevent the ruling parties who knows becomes an oppositions parties when election comes, if there is freaks, u never know. U make a mistakes in aljunied and cost u dearly. If u clamp down on the internet, how do u know your popularities on the grounds. If u do it, than u have no means to get feedbacks from the grounds.
I really really don’t know why Singapore has such a government.
It is very very obvious from the results of the past two general elections that their grassroots organizations had failed to do their job of giving correct feed back of citizens to the ruling party.
Yet the pap had said openly that out was none of thaws grasps fault
The repressive environment in Myanmar is so similar to that in Singapore. Myanmar is known world wide to be a rogue state. But Singapore is known in the International community as a successful state, peaceful, and a good place to do business and bring up your family. It is a first world country par excellence. All of this is true. So what are we complaining about?
Indeed if you do not talk about the Ruling Party but do your own thing, if you never run into an elite individual, company or any entity in opposition to it or him, then you will be allowed to prosper according to your own abilities. But in the nature of things you will run into the Elite someday, one way or another. Then you will see the real face of the regime, the undercurrent corruption of the judicial and political police system and biased state institutions from which you can never extract any justice at all. Ask the citizens who had to pay vast sums in compensation to the members of the Ruling Party for some phoney defamation. Ask those incarcerated without any formal hearing, some for decades. Ask those who are forced into exile. This is the real face of the regime of LKY..
It is the genius of the Ruling Party to so strongly cover your mouths that for decades no one knows about the secret life of the Elites. The media of communication is state owned and nothing will leak from it. The secret police are vigilant and will not allow any sporadic leaks. Until now that is when the Internet Age descends upon us, leaks are bursting in several web sites. I forsee that the PAP will plug the leaks. The things to be done will mean more and more severe repression of the citizenry. Not only the ISA will go full swing but new enactments will be necessary to control the flow of information.
But first the donkeys have to bray. Baey and Khor and the legions of sycophants in State Institutions, academia, civic bodies like the PA, MCYS, MUIS are now mounting a nationwide braying before the ISA and the AG has legitimacy to clam down on society with the curse of LKY.My fellow citizens, I am no rocket scientist. But I would suggest you to brace up against Baey for the scourge that will leave you speechless in any media, even your own voice speaking to yourself.
Yet the pap had said openly that it was none of these grassroots fault.
But when the new and social media provide aviable alternative for citizens to provide feed back directly, the pap wants to curb them.
is the pap sincere when the pm said that his party wants to listen to and engage the citizens?
TOC should advertise informing people to post things like :
What you find or feel is wrong with the system.
Society issues
Issues you raised but were swept under carpet
Articles submitted but were not published
Make it the number 1 platform for whistle blowers
Take’em down limb by limb.
Never again suffer in silence
YOU WILL NEVER WALK ALONE.
We dont owe them a living
How to fund this?
Through ads and donations.
Most TOC readers are well educated or the elites, although they post with anonymity and does not want to admit they use TOC as source of information as they are not affected and does not know whats going on.
There are many products and services that can be advertised on TOC.
TOC must not go the way of hhwzone.
@aziz kassim
Here is some interesting isnsights into politicians, lies and truths to add to your thoughts.
http://www.hackwriters.com/Moreford1.htm
The excerpts include…
1. Niccolo Machiavelli thought if politicians did not lie they would surely fail because lying was fundamental to politics.
2. The public hears so many lies from so many politicians they don’t stop to think of the consequences.
3 The area between factual truths and actual lies always has to do with shades of opinion.
4 Political lying is a complicated, many pronged entity, often described by supporters as a creative act. This creativity to the liar hopefully either replaces or influences reality.
5 we, the public, must be highly critical of politician’s so called empirical facts, even if stated by their own government. We must understand the difference between facts, lies, and opinions, so we can at least listen tolerate our politicians and continue a political dialogue.
6 One must remember the difference between a lie and an opinion can be subtle, made even more so in a market
economy where opinions are tossed around as facts
So they want to screw us around with their definition of their very own manufactured “truths”, presumed monopoly of wisdom, opinion as contrived “facts” and outright lies as the only valid truths of their creations? Any contrary thinking and challenge in cyberspace must be lies and must be censored and/or sanctioned – like we are little kids who can’t differentiate between politicians forked tongue utterances, lies and baseless rhetorical opinion peddled as truths? So they want to legislate and interpret exclusively “truths” when they are knowingly aware that what separate lies from truths are subtle opinion? Or are they going to scam this nation, hide information and truths and accuse netizen of “lying” simply because they are questioning just like the white horse business or the marxist conspiracy without access to evidential proof?
This generation of Singaporeans are not that stupid. The moment they screw around with cyberspace boundaries, we know they are already lost, afraid of truths and scrutiny of contrived fiction peddled as truths of no believability. Let them screw around the abysmal edge of lies, deceptions, and scams and see how they can still “engage” citizenry after that.
Bethechange.sg
Is using youths to distribute flyers at piblic places.
It is also targetting citizens aged 15-35. 15 today, in 5 is 20. Enter workforce. 35 today 40 in 5. Job insecurity.
The leaflet asks ppl to tell them
what do they wish to see in sg
What ideas to make it happen
I think something is on to something. Even can get 3M to advertise on leaflet???
Domain name with .SG. ??
Which body is behind this?
TOC should also do the same and quickly collect new ideas.
Copyright them. Inform public using public domain. Take credit for future changes.
The website shows it has support of NYC and MCYS.
Ha
HaHa
HAAAAAHAAAAA
WAHAHA!
Would particpants be getting goodies for a better life? Ipad? Haha
TOC can just offer an ipad and other tablets.
They are gearing up for 2016.
“…This generation of Singaporeans are not that stupid. The moment they screw around with cyberspace boundaries…..we know they are already lost….”
You are very naive. This generation is no different from the last one. Cyberspace is just another tool of propaganda and they will use it. Those who did not conform will be crush, just as they did in the 60′s and succeeded. You can talk and resist as the late Jeyaretnam did, many before and after him. I am pretty sure the six Workers’ Party Mps, except Hougang will not be around after the next GE. Temasek Review Emeritus did make the difference and they (pap) nip the buds before the disease spread further.
Lies, fear, money and power have kept the pap in power here and everywhere.
@ Jack
“You are very naive. This generation is no different from the last one. Cyberspace is just another tool of propaganda and they will use it.”
Really? What happened to the YPAP P65 portal and “REACH”. You dwell in fantasy dreamland or in another planet?
Probably some of the writings in Temasek Review Emeritus is beyond your intellect but quoted geographically far and distant in cyberspace notation.
Or is you sense of humour playing on your subdued awareness?
oxygen
Probably some of the writings in Temasek Review Emeritus is beyond your intellect but quoted geographically far and distant in cyberspace notation.
Or is you sense of humour playing on your subdued awareness?
—————————————-
hi oxygen
this guy and some others ‘lives’ on “carbon-dioxide’ lah.
they maybe brain-deaden by all the MSM’s dis-information n misinformation.
TOC n TRE have NO LIES for them to thrive?
@ yeoman
LOL. That reminds me of a variation of this nursery rhyme… Jack & Jill, went up the hill,….(and it is)…Jack (not Jill) fell down…(AND WE ALL LAUGH).
@oxygen, yeoman
“Probably some of the writings in Temasek Review Emeritus is beyond your intellect but quoted geographically far and distant in cyberspace notation.”
Bill Moyers keynote at Public Citizen’s 40th Anniversary Gala
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOIQ5-W1Epw&feature=player_embedded
I find the claim by Mr Baey that the Govt will police the Internet for commercial fraud, crime against humanity and other such societal issues most hypocritical. These evils have been around since time immemorial and this Government did not rise up in the last fifty years to pursue the progenitors or such crime or any crime in such a fundamentally sweeping manner as proposed to be done by Mr Baey on the Internet. He is lying to us. What he wants done is to shut down the vociferous denunciations by the citizenry against the acts of the Ruling Party.
The Internet is an ethereal being, waving streams of elementary particles looping around the Earth at almost the speed of light. There is no centre. It spins ethereal habitations as websites. Every web site is thus ephemeral. If one is torn down another will replace it or multiple sites will replace it. The only weak point is the human propensity to cave in and reveal the identity of the contributor to the PAP. Therefore, if TOC caves in, then the netizens are done for. But not absolutely. Recall that even that great superpower the US is not able to kill Wikileaks by technology or by Law. The US however has managed however to cripple Wikileaks by getting the purveyors of credit card facilities to with-hold their services from Wikileaks so that Wikileaks is starved of funds. TOC is orders of magnitude smaller in scale of operation. Singaporeans can fund TOC by snail mail cheques. So TOC and its species will survive. I have no worry. The mafia has no ability to bring down this wonder of the 20th Century, the Internet.They are too daft.
@ Jack
Apology. And thanks for your excellent video sharing for all in TOC.
Bill Moyer is definitely right. MSM and paid journalism (aka paid prostitutes I regard) in general don’t publish news but publicity (aka propaganda). If they ever sell news – it is breaking. Staying hotel guest in Marriot, Jarkarta knew the “news” from the moment of impact explosion and it hit mobile phones long before it became news to journalism. These prostitutes then sell publicity with drama footage for days for advertising dollar. ONLY FOOLS BELIEVE MSM that serves their political masters and corporate pimps.
A word of warning on ETF which is indirectly warned by J. Moyer’s video presentation you shared. He said democracy starts from the bottom, not the political top of liars. Occupy Wall Street is absolutely correct because wall street occupy Ameica and the world. THAT IS COMPLETLY TRUE. Why ETF IS ANOTHER SCAM. It is unregulated “casino” where groupier change rules or can change rules include mandatory locked-up people and long notice before redemption allowed. Hedge Funds selling ETF channelled locked funds into wal street investment banks and they “stir fry” commodities market while renting big recession abandoned warehouses in inconspicous locations around the world using them as storage dump to hoard commodities funded out of hedge funds money. Investment banks and hedge funds then decide how high and how low the commodities prices will rise and fall and controlled the rate of inflation and economic levers.
It is like a casino where mafia change the rule of the game anytime and decide who will be slaughtered for sacrific. Those who wants to gamble ETF withmafia investment bank and hedge funds do it with their eyes wide open.
It will be the investment banks who will rule the world again – NEVER MIND THEY SCREWED THEMSELVES IN MAD SCRAMBLED IN GREED IN 2008 and bailed out by ordinary men and women on the main street. Politicians colluding of course – the prostitutes media, the pimps and mafia politicians share the same bed, different dream.
A dangerous world indeed without the internet. Let us all BE PATRIOTS to save ourself and humanity – resist oppression of controlled media, the swindlers in banks, and the corrupt politicians desperate to oppress democracy from the bottom.
Thanks JACK and TOC for sharing and educate all enlightened Singapore refused to be brainwashed anymore!
Someone commented that to police the Internet is going to be massively costly. Cost is no concern for the PAP when they use state resources to do their dirty work. Well they have probably spent millions on checking out the activities of Francis Seow while he is in America. Not their own money but the taxpayers’ money is used. When the ISD was harassing me and my family at immigration checkpoints for a period of two years, I guess that the expenditure of time, labour and missed opportunities could easily add up to a few hundred thousand dollars. I even wrote to the AG to interview us once and for all, to save all these stoppages at the checkpoints. To jail us if necessary.But no reply. What does the Government care. It is money well spent to assist their comrade in the Law firm, as the ICA did rattle us and soften our resolve at the Court hearings. Therefore, it is not the waste of public funds that these PAP officials are considering. If $10 billion dollars were to be spent annually in suppressing the new media, it could mean that the Ministers can earn their $50 million annually in the exchange. To the PAP that is a good exchange.
We are not dealing with people with a normal sense of right and wrong. Power is so sweet that the sweet chemistry of their blood has changed the circuitry of their brains.
To the moderator.
I understand why my post was rejected. Self censorship will not satisfy them. Thank you for allowing your readers to watch Bill Moyers. Not many will go there, beside yapping mad dogs won’t have a clue. Wish you well and sincerely hope TOC will still be around before the next GE.
I will cease posting, but lurk. TOC should corrupt readers’ mind in Common Dreams, Democracy Now (Amy Goodman), The Real News (Paul Jay) and Asia Time Online (Pepe Escobar).
Bye
Kindest Regards
Jack Smith
When the Committee for Review of the Ministerial Salaries at long last come out with their salary revisions, how do we the citizenry show our reaction to it, when the PAP has closed down TOC and other avenues of speech?
Whether the President’s son escaped NS, how do we know?
When a Council member of MUIS is also a Shari’ah lawyer in private practice, enabling him to commit conflict of interest serially, how do we know?
If the AG, prosecution, judges, Courts and the legal system makes war on the populace,by bankruptcy, incarceration, death sentence, how do we know?
If the Government has made a pact with China to make Singapore a province of it, or have decided to sell out Singapore to the highest bidder by freely conferring citizenship to their nationals, how do we know?
The fact is, the Straits Times and the broadcast media are controlled by the Government and maybe even owned by the Government. Do we expect to hear such bad news from these organs of speech?
NO.
For 50 years we could not know. Now we are awakened by the Internet to knowledge. And the ugly head of Power is now working to shut it down.
No Government can police the Internet per se, not even the Superpower, the US. Mr Baey must be naive or he is pulling wool over our eyes when he put out the suggestion that the Government of Singapore will police the Internet. What the Singapore Government will do is to use more police power and more Rule of Law to police the citizenry. This means a heavier use of the ISA and compliant judges to slam down on those who access the Internet. This is one of the reasons why this Government will not disband its mafia brotherhood, the ISD.
Another way the Government will affect the Internet is to bribe the owners of TOC for instance. Make them great men with million dollar pay and you may see that social media will become traps for the unwary. The owners of websites which previously air the views of the citizenry under confidentiality will become informants to the Government. Once they let out your email address, you’re a goner.
So ‘policing the Internet’ is a misnomer. it is actually policing the people more thoroughly.It is up to us the citizenry whether we will succumb to more oppression. The Govt is also weighing whether we would succumb. Their think-tanks in academia are busy plotting the scenario of the breaking point for more and more oppression.
My apologies to you TOC.I of course hope that you are steadfast.
If one dont read Shit Times at all and only read TOC, and nothing else, doesnt he get brainwashed (in another way) too? Hmm……