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SINGAPORE: Singapore's Prime Minister has said that while the government is keen to engage Singaporeans, what goes online needs to be assessed "critically and carefully".
Mr Lee Hsien Loong's comments come as new media increasingly becomes the choice of communication and networking.
This is an age when events in the real world often transcend the digital world.
Citing the leadership tussle by Singapore women's group AWARE, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong noted how easy it is to mount online campaigns.
He said he received many emails from opposing camps.
"Many of the emails were identical. Exactly the same letter, word for word. Obviously somebody cut and pasted from a template," Mr Lee said.
"That's not just my surmise. It's a fact because some of them didn't fully cut and paste so if you read till the bottom of the letter, you will see down there the rubric is still there. The rubric says please enter your name and IC number and send this to the PM."
Hence, Mr Lee said that in this instance, it is not independent feedback, but an organised campaign to lobby and pressure the government to back one side against the other.
He said the government cannot make decisions simply based on the volume of emails supporting or opposing a particular situation.
He added the government must also be cautious of what's called "Astroturfing" campaigns.
"People talk about grassroots feedback but this technique is called Astroturf," he said. "That means you make it look like grass but actually you planted the plastic all over the field. Fake identities and you orchestrate a campaign".
He pointed to recent emails circulating, criticising the government on property prices.
"(The critics) always end up saying that the government must bring down the property prices quickly, sharply, immediately, or else after the next election (they) will stop supporting (us)."
Mr Lee said upon verifying the emails, the names, phone and even IC numbers attached turned out to be fake.
"This was clearly not a straight forward feedback consultation discussion dialogue, but a covert attempt to pressure the government for perhaps personal benefits and in the process also to confuse the public as to what Singaporeans think."
Mr Lee noted though, that online feedback can be useful, as seen in REACH's digital platform.
Since REACH expanded on its online platforms, it has received more feedback.
Last year it had 27,000 inputs, many online. The number of unique visitors to its website also went up three times and it had 30 per cent more input on its online forums.
Mr Lee said REACH also found that the best way to engage Singaporeans is a combination of online and face-to-face dialogue, something which forum participants agreed with.
Soh Yi Da, a forum participant, said: "The most challenging part would be the challenge of anonymity the reason being if you want the government to respond to your suggestion, you want the government to respond to your feedback, then we have to put down our names so when the government wants to close the loop they can get back in touch with us."
Abinaya Puspanathan, another forum participant, said: "When you give feedback online you don't know exactly who's looking at it and how far your feedback reaches. So perhaps you could have more ways of following and tracking your feedback to see how far it goes and getting more response".
One participant also argued that Singapore leaders should try and do more to engage online forums outside of the government's ambit.
"It would be good to gradually move out of REACH forum alone by going into public forums as well," said 18-year-old Karen Yong. "We might get a different perspective from public forums that are unregulated. Singaporeans they know that REACH is a government feedback unit so they might not be that comfortable with giving their views in a very forthcoming manner."
Some 100 people attended the forum.
- CNA/yb
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