Other countries, particularly those in the more developed west, introduced the Internet since the late eighties to early nineties. Singaporeans studying or working abroad thus were exposed to the Internet technology well before the PAP government made it available in Singapore, perhaps explaining why since its commercial introduction in 1995, the Internet has diffused into Singapore’s society at a phenomenal rate.

With the Internet technology now being made commercially available to everyone, there has been a swift awareness and application of the Internet as an avenue for freedom of self-expression and critical analysis and discussion of issues affecting peoples lives, particularly issues arising from the political landscape of the country.

In Singapore where political expression is controlled, the Internet therefore offers an opportunity for many to express their views and use different techniques, tools and methods of delivery for political communication.

This is in spite of regulations regarding content brought in 1996 as well as amendments to the Parliamentary Elections Act in 2001. The ruling PAP which enjoys dominant coverage in the traditional media does not want competing political ideas to have a wide reach.

This article traces the emergence of non-governmental private and organised political expression on the Internet in Singapore.

Formed in 1989, Soc.culture.asean provided the first and original platform in which Singaporean issues could be discussed. It was later in 1992 when soc.culture.singapore was set up that Singaporeans discussed Singaporean issues on the home turf. Politics became very regular and popular in these discussions although the quality of discussions varied.

This evolved further to soc.culture.Singapore-moderated when there was a demand among some posters for regulation and separation between serious and unruly posters.

This forum carries a wide variety of political posting from criticism and defence of different political position to alerts to political events and activities. It was a precursor to the emergence of political websites but as a bulletin board it still remains active.

Websites pertaining to politics are generally divided into two sections, one belong to advocacy groups and the other to political parties. With regards to advocacy the first websites were Singapore-Window and Singaporeans for Democracy and these were based overseas and were set up in 1997 following disappointment with local media coverage of the general elections in that year.

Singapore-Window provides reports of different views of Singapore from various media sources around the world. Singaporeans for Democracy is a more vigorous website that aims to promote greater democracy in Singapore and provides a forum for freely expressing opinions.

These two sites are important in that they provided the forum for individuals associated to the Think Centre and the Singapore Democratic Party to place their announcements before they in turn developed their own websites based in Singapore. Think Centre, founded in 2000, is one of the most politically vocal website in Singapore today, asserting that politics and civil society must be regarded as being inextricably linked thus relentlessly pushing the government for greater transparency and accountability.

There also the websites of political discussion groups the Socratic Circle and the Roundtable based in Singapore which are rarely updated and almost not existent. TangTalk is the site of Tang Liang Hong and carries issues of his lawsuit against the Peoples Action Party and is based overseas.

There has been others that do not focus directly on politics but provide intermittent coverage such as Sintercom which covered the Singapore general elections of 1997 and occasionally featured some articles on politics. This site voluntarily closed down when the PAP government requested the site to register with its controllers.

There are others that are satirical and individual in nature which are not wholly set out to be political in nature. Political party websites in Singapore began with the opposition parties, more specifically, with the National Solidarity Party (NSP) setting up it’s party website in 1998. In response to this, the ruling party, PAP, developed their website under the guise of the Young PAP party website. It is only very recently that the PAP launched it’s own party website. Hitherto, the PAP essentially promoted its position within the government websites. The ruling party was reluctant to publicise itself as being distinct from a government because it afforded it the luxury of freedom from criticism directed at the party.

Other political party websites following the NSP include the Worker’s Party website and the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) website. However, (like the Think Centre website) the SDP’s party initial announcements were largely made through the SFD’s website. Only when the party gained enough support and had accumulated a significantly large mail list that the SDP detached and set up its own distinct political party website. Both the NSP and Worker’s Party have upgraded their websites from the initial set up.

In the relatively earlier days of Internet politics in Singapore, only the Young PAP website was supporting web-based chat/discussion with a focus on political issues. Many of the other web-based chat rooms were primarily on entertainment, food, music, etc. Since then, political websites like the NSP have a web-based discussion board and a mail list discussion news groups.

The ThinkCentre had a speaker’s corner online but shut it down in protest when the ruling party introduced legislation to hold owners and editors responsible for legal issues arising from anonymous posters.

Sintercom, Straits Times, and other websites, though not necessarily political websites or have a political agenda, also occasionally have chat debates of a political nature. However with the introduction of legislation on control and liability, Sintercom shut down its chat operations when the ruling party introduced further legislation in 2001.

Mail lists too have played a significant role in the spread of politics on the Internet. SGDaily that was associated with Sintercom distributed news about Singapore collected from foreign media. But when Sintercom decided to close down the mail list also disappeared.

The NSP and the Think Centre continue to build their respectable mail lists with the Think Centre amassing more than 5000 recipients subscribing to regular political news and information. Singapore-Window and Singaporean for Democracy also have mail lists which are used intermittently.

Political news is not limited to being distributed via the mail lists of political websites. Private mail lists and Interest Group mail lists have been and continue to be used by individuals on the list, who have an interest in political issues, to distribute political content.

The amount information that goes through should not be underestimated. Mail lists have become popular because of their personalness derived from mail recipients being a part of a group/circle of friends, not obtained from chat rooms or newsgroups.

But its important to note that almost all of the political information on the Internet in Singapore is in English. There are a couple of mail list that carry information in Malay. Mandarin a largely used language does not have a political presence on the Internet in Singapore. The kinds of politics discussed also largely domestic in nature. Regional and international issues are of little concern.

The use of the Internet for political purposes is shaped by the rules governing the use of it. And because of the ruling party uses rules and regulation to prosecute political opponents some political parties, civil society groups and individuals choose not to maximise the potential the Internet has to offer for political communication. They prefer to err on the side of caution.

In that sense the political potential of the Internet has yet to be fully harnessed. Thus in some ways working into the hands of the ruling party, a dynamic use of the Internet could correct this imbalance.

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