For Singapore's 2011 General Elections, we have seen a unprecedented rise in political use of Internet to reach out to potential voters. Besides getting Facebook pages for certain politicians, Twitter was also greatly utilised, though only mainly by the opposition parties. PM Lee Hsien Loong also hosted a Facebook forum chat to find out more about any major concerns citizens had, including housing, and jobs opportunities.
PM Lee's Facebook chat forum was, in my opinion, not an effective way to properly understand citizen's concerns. This is because a lot of people were just posting comments at the same time, and this doesn't allow enough time for PM Lee and his audience to read all comments and respond properly. This however, shows how willing PM Lee was to step into cyberspace to interact with citizens.
I believe that with this increasing trend of Internet use in the local political sphere, competition between parties will become more stiff, which would encourage more improvement. This will ultimately benefit us citizens, as well as our nation.
To end off, here's a cute comic that I'll like to share with you.
(image taken from personaldemocracy.com)
Note: I am not politically affiliated with any party.
