Democracy and Elections: the Impact of Online Politics in Singapore James Gomez

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Seminar on Democracy and Elections: the Impact of Online Politics in Singapore James Gomez Abstract Since coming to power in 1965, the People’s Action Party (PAP) government of Singapore has introduced a series of legal innovations to the electoral framework. In doing this, the PAP has tried to deflect criticisms of its performance and to perpetuate its incumbency. During the last three general elections, held between 1997-2006, some of these innovations have been aimed at limiting the impact of the internet on voter attitudes. The PAP’s concerns over the internet have been prompted by opposition parties, NGOs (both local and international) and ordinary individuals using online technologies to generate alternative political content that has been accessed by voters, especially during election campaigning. Is there evidence that the use of the internet by opposition elements has had significant impact on electoral outcomes? Have the PAP’s innovations reduced the effectiveness of this internet use? In this seminar, James Gomez critically reviews the impact of online efforts of INGOs, local NGOs and individuals and opposition parties, then evaluates the PAP’s efforts to curb these activities. The Speaker James Gomez recently submitted his PhD thesis on Singapore politics, undertaken at the Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Australia. His published articles on Singapore include: “Citizen Journalism: Bridging the Discrepancy in Singapore’s General Elections News”, in Sudostasien Aktuell - Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs (June 2006) (German Institute of Global and Area Studies); “Restricting Free Speech: The Impact on Opposition Parties in Singapore”, in Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies Special Issue: Stability, Risks and Opposition in Singapore 23 (2006) (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark); and “International NGOS: Filling the civil society ‘gap’ in Singapore”, in Sojourn: Special Focus on Democracy and Civil Society: NGO Politics in Singapore 20(2) (2005), (Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore). James Gomez maintains a website at www.jamesgomeznews.com and can be contacted at [email protected] *** All are Welcome *** 5 May (Monday) 4:00 – 5:00 pm G7619, FHS Conference Room, 7/F, Green Zone, Academic Building, City University of Hong Kong Language: English Enquiries: please contact Josephine Yim at 3442 6106 .

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'Citizen Journalism': Bridging the Discrepancy in Singapore's
www.ssoar.info ’Citizen Journalism’: Bridging the Discrepancy in Singapore’s General Elections News Gomez, James Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Zur Verfügung gestellt in Kooperation mit / provided in cooperation with: GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Gomez, J. (2006). ’Citizen Journalism’: Bridging the Discrepancy in Singapore’s General Elections News. Südostasien aktuell : journal of current Southeast Asian affairs, 25(6), 3-34. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-336844 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de Südostasien aktuell 6/2006 3 Studie ’Citizen Journalism’: Bridging the Discrepancy in Singapore’s General Elections News James Gomez Abstract The political expression of ordinary Internet users in Singapore has received the attention of some scholars but very little has been speciﬁcally written about citizen journalism during general elections. Since the arrival of the Internet in Singapore in 1995, the People’s Action Party (PAP) government has actively sought to control the supply of online political content during the election campaign period. This paper looks at how online political expressions of ordinary Internet users and the regulations to control them have taken shape during the last three general elections in 1997, 2001 and 2006.
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Evaluating Competing “Democratic” Discourses: the Impact on Human Rights Protection in Southeast Asia, In: Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 33, 3, 49–77
Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs Gomez, James, and Robin Ramcharan (2014), Evaluating Competing “Democratic” Discourses: The Impact on Human Rights Protection in Southeast Asia, in: Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 33, 3, 49–77. URN: http://nbn-resolving.org/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:gbv:18-4-8068 ISSN: 1868-4882 (online), ISSN: 1868-1034 (print) The online version of this article can be found at: <www.CurrentSoutheastAsianAffairs.org> Published by GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Institute of Asian Studies and Hamburg University Press. The Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To subscribe to the print edition: <[email protected]> For an e-mail alert please register at: <www.CurrentSoutheastAsianAffairs.org> The Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs is part of the GIGA Journal Family which includes: Africa Spectrum ●● Journal of Current Chinese Affairs Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs ●● Journal of Politics in Latin America <www.giga-journal-family.org> Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 3/2014: 49–77 Evaluating Competing “Democratic” Discourses: The Impact on Human Rights Protection in Southeast Asia James Gomez and Robin Ramcharan Abstract: This paper evaluates the impact of competing “democratic” discourses on human rights protection in Southeast Asia. The authors identify three key discourses emanating from a set of national govern- mental policies, advocacy positions promoted by both global and local civil society and international standards and procedures adopted by members of inter-governmental organisations.
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