Singapore Democrats

Singapore Democrats

The title to this report "Political parties go online to extend their reach" by Valarie Tan of Channel News Asia seems straightforward enough -- Singapore's political parties, both ruling and opposition, are fully utilising the Internet to achieve their ends.

But wait, there's no mention of the Singapore Democrats anywhere! It reports on only two parties - the PAP and WP. This is particularly strange when the SDP's website, updated daily, is by far the most read website of all political parties in Singapore.

CNA also writes that "Social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter are the latest ways Singapore political parties are reaching out to people online."

This website employs all manner of online instruments to reach out to Singaporeans. We have produced the most number of YouTube presentations, we were the first to get on Twitter with the most number of followers, and our supporters have even established a Friends of SDP Facebook page.

And yet in CNA's report, only silence about the Singapore Democrats.

The report also talks about the youth wings of both the PAP and WP. Yet, the SDP is the first opposition party to establish a youth wing. The Young Democrats was formed in 2000 and has since grown robustly. Again, absolutely no mention of this in CNA's report.

It is obvious that the media want Singaporeans to know as little as possible about the Singapore Democrats. If and when they do report on us, they will put on the worst possible spin. This is what the SDP is up against.

This trend will intensify as elections draw closer. The question that must be asked is: Why is the media so intent on hushing up news about, particularly, the Singapore Democrats?

In another instance, Alicia Wong of Today reported yesterday about the installation of CCTVs at Hong Lim Park (see here), obviously reading and then following up on the SDP's report two days before (see here).

Yet the newspaper refuses to acknowledge that the story was first reported on this website.

Are we complaining? No. We take this as the PAP badly wanting to get rid of us and a signal that we must work even harder to deny them the pleasure.

It is important that Singaporeans know the truth. The Singapore Democrats are not only alive and well, but leading the way on the Internet. We cannot let the media cover up this fact.

We ask our supporters and followers to step up efforts to help us overcome this hurdle by spreading the SDP's news as far and as wide as possible through your emails, Facebook pages, blogs and so on.

Don't let the PAP use the New Media to fool the people too.