2006-04-06 - 4:00 a.m.

From a Channel News Asia report:

Podcasting will not be allowed during elections as it does not fall under the "positive list" which states what is allowed under election advertising.

He seems to like the word 'positive' a lot ah, this HIV-Hero.

Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts Balaji Sadasivan added that streaming of videos during campaigning would also be prohibited.

Minister of State for Misinformation, Miscommunication and the Art of Gossiping with Unnamed Epidemiologists.

He was addressing a question in Parliament on Monday about the use of new technologies on the internet during hustings.

Pictures of candidates, party histories and manifestos are on the "positive list" and are allowed to be used as election advertising on the internet.

Newer internet tools like podcasting do not fall within this "positive list".

Balaji, I'm afraid that using your picture for election advertising, in my books, falls into the "negative list".

Dr Balaji said: "There are also some well-known local blogs run by private individuals who have ventured into podcasting. The content of some of these podcasts can be quite entertaining. However, the streaming of explicit political content by individuals during the election period is prohibited under the Election Advertising Regulations. A similar prohibition would apply to the videocasting or video streaming of explicitly political content."

Always, always the begrudging giveaway phrase, like 'can be quite entertaining'. It CAN BE--to people who are 'entertained by this sort of thing', whose 'deviant tastes actually find this kind of stuff worth their attention' etc. Yah lah, I listen to podcasts lah OK, and have thus neglected my ST-reading Mediacorp-watching Charity-Show-donating stayer cosmolander duty to have 2.4 babies.

The Parliamentary Election Act was amended in 2001 to allow political parties to advertise on the internet.

This was to ensure responsible use of the internet during campaigning as the free-for all environment of the internet is open to abuse.

Dr Balaji added that individual bloggers can discuss politics, but have to register with the Media Development Agency if they persistently promote political views.

Ah ha. Register. How leh? So I went down to visit the MDA site. And found under the FAQ section:

What is the purpose of registering political and religious websites? What does it mean to be registered?

Registration serves to emphasize the need for such content providers to be responsible and accountable for what they say. This is important, given the multi-racial, multi-religious nature of our society. Registration is a simple administrative procedure and content providers are only required to give the MDA the particulars of the website and those who are responsible for the editorial content. This is as straight-forward as the completion of a form. Registration does not mean the promotion of political or religious causes is allowed.

So...I look up the forms at the MDA website: http://www.mda.gov.sg/wms.www/resources.aspx?sid=157 And guess what? NONE of the links under 'Internet' work! How like that? What kind of strange Kafkaesque labyrinth is Balaji leading us down into?

When registered, they're then not allowed to advertise during elections - something only political parties, candidates and election agents are allowed to do only.

'DURING elections' is a very interesting phrase. One can understand that a campaigning period is the time when people can start doing things like hold election rallies, canvass door-to-door for support, allow the Speak Mandarin Campaign to take a rest as candidates charm heartlanders with Teochew in Hougang and Hokkien in Toa Payoh. But what does this mean for blogs, which consist of continuous entries, sorted by date? Does this mean one has to stop blogging during the election period? But then there are archives--consisting of entries which are technically written before this time period comes into effect. How to import this concept of the 'election period' into blogs? Obviously an 'election period' holds for rallies, because we are dealing with a synchronic idea: 'at a specific moment in time'. But the blog is a diachronic creature: 'occurring over a period of time'.

Despite new internet technology, there're no plans to change the law on campaigning on line during an election.

The government's view is that people can have diverse views, but should not hide behind the anonymity of the internet, to manipulate public opinion. - CNA/ch

Is it really as innocent as asking people to be accountable for their statements? I don't think many bloggers in Singapore--from Mr Brown to Alex Au at Yawning Bread are anonymous. What I think is that scaremongering tactics are at work--the very mention of 'register' conveys surrender to some unsavoury surveillance.

So this is what you can do:

1) Register your blog. Fill in that MDA form, if it ever crops up.
2) Update regularly.
3) Cut and paste rubbish. LENGTHY TRACTS of rubbish. Song lyrics, synopsis of B-movies, cheem articles with titles like 'Bataille's Navel' or 'Pynchon and Neodialectic Semioticist Theory' (there is an absolutely beautiful site at http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo which can auto-generate nonsense pomo texts each time you refresh the page), programming articles, law reviews, golf, crochet, identifying various species of dung beetles etc.
4) Of course be a bit clever lah, slip in a few bits inside you think might be construed as 'political'. Eg: 'Elections are around the corner. Today I read about three new faces that have red-carpet walked their way to the front pages of ST. Very interesting. Shall blog about this at a later entry...now very sleepy...zzzzz.' Or 'I have been speaking to my neighbours about their choice of candidates for this year's GE. GE is General Election lah, not Gastroenteritis hehe, although they might both give rise to similar feelings of nausea. Anyway, this is exciting news: more than 90% of the people I talked to said they would vote for...eh, my Mother calling now, gotta run.' Or 'I have it on good authority that there is this grassroots leader who has infiltrated the RC...she's actually an opposition party member...so cool, espionage! I won't give away her identity, but let's just say that she makes great curry puffs!'

Why do this?

1) A keen bureaucrat will read your stuff, examining it for signs of the political.
2) You will be granted a readership of at least one person.
3) Overwhelm all the idiots who think that the Internet can be tamed.

Here's a game to play. Implicit, or explicit political content?

Lightning.

PAP Smear.

Deity.

Misuse of Drugs Act?

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