Barely a week ago, he announced that homosexuals would be accepted in the civil service. Now over the weekend, Mr Goh Chok Tong hinted at a further relaxation of controls.

Calling for "ventilation and variation", he urged Singaporeans to embrace diversity and make themselves heard.

The call to be a more open society comes at a time when the opposite is happening in rival city Hong Kong where the authorities are seeking to impose an anti-subversion bill which many fear will threaten civil liberties in Hong Kong. The Bill would outlaw treason, sedition and other crimes against the state and impse life sentences for many offences.

Of course, unlike Singapore, Hong Kong has always enjoyed civil liberties that are on par with most western democracies so there have been mass rallies there to protest against it - something unheard of in Singapore.

To many Singaporeans and residents of Singapore, the Prime Minister's call for more diversity and openness must be a welcome move. The question is when the Government says Singaporeans should make themselves heard, how open can they be and how loud can they shout?

These specifics have yet to be touched upon.

In any case, even before the Government's recent "open" announcements and even before the recommendations of the Remaking Singapore committee were brought to light, Singaporeans had already found an outlet for expression - the Internet.

This wonderful medium is replete with websites that discuss Singapore politics and society in a no-holds barred way.

Opinions, commentary and information that are ignored or rejected by the regular traditional press find their way to these bastions of "free speech" within hours and the people manning these forums and websites appear to be doing it voluntarily. Many of these volunteers are well educated professionals so readers are usually assured of well-written and researched articles.

In fact, just like regular news media, one well-established forum even goes to the extent of providing corrections and explanations and other caveats in its mailers if any of its writers have made mistakes or if the content in the article is inflammatory.

Singapore isn't the only nation where online journalism is fast gaining currency. In countries like South Korea - the most advanced Internet nation in the world - Web-based news sites are increasingly shaping public opinion and policy.

Like Singapore, the marriage of a fledgling democracy (well, it's older in Singapore) and broadband technology has spawned a host of We-based news sites in South Korea. But the most famous of them all is OhnyNews, South Korea's most influential news site.

With only 40 full-time journalists, it has built up almost as big a readership as fearsome a reputation for influencing public opinion as 50-year old newspapers. The country was under a military dictatorship until 1987 so the press was a compliant one. But after massive bloody pro-democracy protests the authorities were forced to accept presidential elections and feedom of expression.

Since then, the press has been unstoppable. And with 67 per cent of South Korean households possessing broadband, the Internet has become a powerful means of news dissemination.

In the presidential elections earlier this year, polls showed that the victory of Mr Roh Moo-Hyun came from a huge surge of support from the Internet generation of twenty-and-thirty-somethings.

In Singapore, based on a November 2001 surveytime, there are about 1 million broadband users. That is 25 per cent of the island's population.

Indeed, the Net is where many of this 25 per cent - mainly the younger generation - get their news first, bypassing the traditional media and Singapore, after South Korea is one of the most wired in the world.

Obviously, it is only a matter of time - a short time I venture to guess - before a locally-minted OhmyNews online site springs up in

Singapore. Will this portend the freeing up of the traditional media too?

The views of the writer do not neccessarily represent the views of Lycos Asia.

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