Sales, Social and Tech

He may have his share of detractors but the supporters of Roy Ngern spoke with their money to help the blogger raised $70,000 for legal fees to defend himself from the upcoming defamation lawsuit by the PM of Singapore. From a social media and pro Internet user, Roy's success in crowdfunding his legal fees represent the true power of the long tail in the connected world. The long tail theory is often described the idea that if you can target the niche market online, the total market, which may be seen as small by the mass market, could actually be large enough to survive and profit from it.  Not that Roy will profit from it, but by collecting donations, with amounts ranging from $10 - $100 or more, from a niche market size of individuals who oppose the current leader of the ruling government part, is a perfect example of the long tail. The donation drive also highlighted that the perception of the defamation of the suit is not just against Roy, but the people who have donated to hi...

An estimated 3,000 attended the protest against the Population White Paper at Hong Lim Park on 16 February 2013. This was the largest non-political gathering since Singapore independence in 1965. This, itself, is a story worthy of the cover page. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post thought it was, but Singapore's Straits Times felt Girl Guides visiting Gardens by the Bay would be more deserving of the front page. Source: Occupy Singapore Facebook Page If The Straits Times, with the circulation of 300K plus, intent was to bury the news, 75% of Singapore's population having access to the Internet (Source: World Bank ), it would be difficult any of these 75% to avoid the stories and photos posted on social networks and news sites from overseas. One commented that The Straits Times had role to play in "Psychological Defense" and thus is defending the mind of Singaporeans. But doesn't too much of good news lead to complacency that all is well, when actua...

The recent Population White Paper generated massive online discussions and most tilted towards furor towards the speed of the Singapore Parliament accepting it within a week of debate. Many Singaporeans who have added their comments on the Population White Paper, whether it was through the online medium or letters to the press, would have felt that their voices were not heard. This has also shown that Singaporeans are ready to speak their mind and voice out their opinions to contribute to nation building, is it time for Singapore to look at ways to have the public's voice as part of the parliamentary process in accepting future White Papers? Tan Kin Lian, one of the candidates in the last Presidential Elections, shared how Sweden engaged its citizen in the discussions of their White Papers. Wrote Mr Tan on his Facebook Page , "My Swedish friend told me that a white paper in Sweden is handled in the following way: 1. They government sets the terms of refe...

Blackbox Research Infographics on the issues that swayed the Punggol East voters in the recently by-election. While the survey hints of the "by-election" effect, there are also other factors which swayed the 10% swing vote for a Wokers' Party victory. Source: Yahoo.com 59% surveyed highlighted that having an Opposition MP in Parliament wasn't a disadvantage and it was found that out of this 59%, 73% were under 40.  This highlights the possibility of the "by-election" effect that the PAP attributed their lost to Workers' Party. 17% surveyed felt that the PAP government wasn't listening to them and out of this 21% were under 40. Those above 40 were more likely attribute "cost of living" as a reason for their voting choice. This is extremely significant as it shows clearly that the younger generation wants a government that listens to them and the older generation wants a solution to the current rising cost of inflation. I bel...

I wanted to write more during the Punggol East by-elections but dengue slowed me down to being extremely unproductive.  Congratulations to the Workers' Party for winning the by-elections by a 10% margin, an opposition win which many thought would either be a close fight or one that Workers' Party was to lose because of the multi-cornered fight.  Yet, this story is on the post elections. Photo from h ttp://undertheangsanatree.blogspot.sg/2013/02/white-clouds-clearing-for-blue-skies.html vs Photo from Omy.sg Never mind that the Singapore mainstream media has made PAP candidate's Dr Koh Poh Koon a folder of gif animated jokes for waving to an almost empty audience No, this story is about the approach that the two political parties have taken to symbolise their status.  The topless bus symbolise the future that is Singapore. Yet, this future put an unimaginable distance between the leaders and its people. How close can you be with th...

This morning I saw a post on Facebook of a Singapore citizen emailing the Attorney General to investigate The Straits Times on contravening Parliamentary Elections Act (Chapter 218) with an article headlined "ST Poll: More rooting for PAP". I thought I post about it later in the evening, only to have heard that the police are currently looking into the complaint. A concerned citizen by the name of Brendan Chong emailed the Attorney General Chambers about his concern over the article. Brendan compared the incident with that when the Act was enforced on Joseph Ong Chor Teck for conducting a general election exit poll on the TRE website. Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4317387301523&set=a.1099500416362.2017043.1492224593&type=1&theater It was soon announced in the evening that the police are looking into the matter. Wrote Yahoo News , "The Elections Department (ELD) has confirmed police are probing an election poll result published b...

Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, via his lawyers, has send a letter of demand to Alex Au, the blogger at Yawning Bread blog to take down his three posts on the AIMS issue. Wrote Today , "The letter, from Drew and Napier Senior Council Davinder Singh, said the blog post contained "very serious suggestions of criminal breach of trust" and, by the references to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau and the Attorney-General's Chambers, "of corruption". The post also drew defamatory comments from readers, some directed against Mr Lee, said the letter of demand, which listed 21 comments. The comments when read with the original post and/or by themselves, are understood to mean that Mr Lee "is guilty of corruption in relation to the AIM Transaction and will abuse his powers to cover up the matter or prevent any investigation into his corruption", said the letter. "These are false and baseless allegations"." If the ...

Here is a lesson in the importance of punctuation marks. A missing or out of place mark would change the entire meaning of the sentence. Channel NewsAsia original headline was  Hougang residents has been misled by WP : Khaw . This story was in response to the immediate expulsion of Workers' Party  Hougang's MP Yaw Shin Leong. For some strange httml reason with the CNA website, Facebook and Google strip away the ":" and that changed the context of the headline. Channel NewsAsia headline on Facebook  puts Minister Khaw as WP member and faults him for misleading Hougang Residents Google also shows the misled headline CNA web developers better look at how their html display special characters as it could cause major embarrassment, especially to those who are not so sure of the Singapore political scene. By the way, the most common phrase that appeared on social media about Khaw's comment was "those who live in glass house should ...

It is extremely disappointing for me to see how Workers' Party has communicated the issue regarding Mr Yaw Shin's alleged extra marital affair.  Workers' Party Chief, Mr Low Thia Kiang, has chose the path of "no comments" and hiding behind official statements to fend off questions about Mr Yaw's alleged affair.  This is seen in Today as Mr Low was was quoted to say,  "The WP has made a statement on the matter. That's all we want to say. I have nothing more to say. That's all.". Mr Yaw also tried to shoo away the journalist by telling them that  "I don't want to waste your time. It's a precious night, so go back and spend time with your family. I don't want you all to wait because even if you wait until the end (of the MPS), I have no comment. The party has already issued a statement and I have nothing to add." One of the biggest mistake most people have when answering the media is that "no comment"...

Words used in communications frames the perception of the readers' reality. As such, words plays an important part in creating the right public relations between the subject and the reader. An example of this is highlighted in the choice of words used by our political parties in explaining mistakes or errors made in statement.  " WP clarifies Gerald Giam's remark in Parliament " shouts one of the headlines in The Straits Times today. This is reference to statement made by Mr Gerald Giam in Parliament recently on the debate on ministerial salary. When PAP's Grace Fu tried to explain her Facebook status update on ministerial salary, the headlines shouts, " Public misunderstood my comments: Grace Fu ". Without going into dictionary definitions, one can clearly see how these two words "clarifies" and "misunderstood" immediately create a perception of how one frames the image of these two subject making that statement. "Clari...

'I believe people can accept that our political leaders should have the best medical care - either with increased coverage or even free of charge. 'We cannot choose when and whether to fall ill. It is in the interests of the country and Singaporeans that our prime minister and our ministers are given the necessary medical treatment and recover well and fast to continue serving the nation.' ~ MP Baey Yam Keng It is very ironic that MP Baey Yam Keng, who is also the Managing Director of Hill & Knowlton (a MNC Public Relations agency), can make such 'high potential to be misunderstood" remark to the media to suggest that Singapore political leaders should get the best medical care for free so that can return to the serve the country earlier than sooner. How about the rest of everyday Singaporeans? Shouldn't they also get the best medical care for free because they are the ones that keep Singapore moving? Are the average Singaporeans not importan...

The year 2011 seems to be the year of apologies for PAP Members of Parliament in Singapore. However, in the process of apologising and defending their fellow MPs, the PAP government created so many pink elephants that keeps reminding people of the mistake. Take for example Minister Shanmugam's interview with the media yesterday where he defended Mr Seng Han Tong by saying that " Mr Seng Han Tong is not a racist ". The problem with the "not" is that it actually focus on the word "racist". This is an example of an unnecessary negative.  Even if the person reading this sentence in the papers live in the Stone Age with no access to the Internet, the person will wonder why Minister Shanmugam had to emphasis that Mr Seng Han Tong is not a racist.  Minister Shanmugam also gave The Online Citizen the limelight by highlighting the social-political blog for wrongly quoting Mr Seng Han Tong.  In the apology, both Mr Seng Han Tong and Minister ...

Member of Parliament (MP) Mr Seng Han Thong may have apologised for his remarks made on Blog.Tv, but he might be still wondering why he was the one receiving the back of the Internet whiplash.  After all, as a trained journalist, all Mr Seng Han Thong did was to quote a SMRT Public Relations person that " that some of the staff, because they are Malays, they are Indians, they can't converse in English well enough" during the Blog.Tv episode discussing the recent SMRT breakdown.  Well, Mr Seng, you are no longer an editor. You are a Member of Parliament and your role as Member of Parliament is to represent the people.  It is because you are an MP now, what you say, even as a quote from a source, represents the voice of those you were elected to represent. You incurred the wrath of fellow Singaporeans on the Internet because we do not agree with your representation by publicly parroting the quote by the SMRT Public Relations.  Furthermore, you are a MP, a ...

If you are a Singaporean and want to be happy as a Bhutanese, voting for PAP's Cedric Foo, MP for Pioneer, isn't the right MP for you. Mr Cedric Foo was one of the other opponent of Ms Sylvia Lim, Workers' Party chairperson, proposal to put in a place a component in measuring happiness in Singapore. Ms Lim said, as quoted in The Straits Times, "If the happiness and sustainability of Singapore's society is the overarching goal, then there's a need to unravel the exact relationship between high property prices and fertility and what responses might arrest or even reverse the decline in fertility rates." Mr Cedric Foo, however, rebutted Ms Lim use of Bhutan as an example. Said Mr Foo, as quoted in The Straits Times, "I think the opposition member couldn't have chosen a more dissimilar country to compare Singapore with. We are exposed to the seas, exposed to the onslaught of competition from the world, we were dealt a different deck of cards... ...

In my earlier post , I highlighted that the strategy employed by The Workers’ Party was to find their opponent’s weakness in the strength. The Workers’ Party win at Aljunied GRC validates the strategy. Ries and Trout, authors wrote The challenger should seek a weakness in the leader's strength and attack on as narrow a front as possible. The Workers’ Party win at Aljunied GRC highlights that the weakness in the PAP strength could actually be the GRC system itself. One GRC lost and the PAP lost three ministers in an election. Come GE2016, Workers’ Party have to play defense to maintain its hold in Aljunied GRC which is a different strategy altogether. The Workers’ Party in Aljunied have to make sure that they deliver their promises made in this campaign and ensure that Aljunied GRC improves. This Workers’ Party team have to show that as leaders, they have the humility to attack within so as to improve Aljunied GRC. An attacking within was a strategy that PAP took t...

Some of the opposition have highlighted that the role of Non-Constituency Members of Parliament or NCMP is that of a second class MP without any voting rights. The three best losers who will be invited to take on the role as NCMP will be SPP’s Lina Chiam for Potang Pasir, WP’s Yee Jenn Jong for Joo Chiat and one WP’s representative from East Coast GRC team. I am not very sure of how the NCMP scheme work, so I am making some assumptions. Though SPP’s Lina Chiam might be given the role for NCMP, I hope she rejects it to give it the forth best losing party which will be the NSP team for Marine Parade. I am not sure if the NCMP scheme works this way. But if it does, I would NSP to nominate Nicole Seah as their choice of NCMP. Nicole’s presence in parliament would ignite interest of politics among the younger generation. Wouldn’t this make for a interesting run up to GE2016? So for WP, I hope Yee Jenn Jong takes up the role and represent the entrepreneurs and SMBs of Singapore as...

Go spread the word... Details at Maruah's site here: http://is.gd/vote2011

The last Workers’ Party rally I went was five years at the Serangoon Stadium, the Workers’ Party were also running for elections for East Coast GRC but I don’t remember a rally at Bedok Stadium then. The Workers’ Party came to Bedok Stadium this year round and a day before PAP’s. This was due to the early queuing by the Workers’ Party for rally sites. What struck me at the rally in Bedok Stadium was that I saw more young working adults at the Workers’ Party rally cheering for the speakers. In comparison, the last rally in Serangoon Stadium felt more like it was attended by Workers’ Party diehards. Attending the Workers’ Party rally at Bedok Stadium reminded me of the days at National Stadium to watch the Malaysia Cup matches. Sometimes, it was the remarks shouted by the audience that made the highlights of the boring draw. So rather then post the official speeches, I would rather put down the reaction of the crowd. “Why does the Govt only give you money one week before the e...

The last Singapore General Elections in Singapore was held on 06 May 2006, social networking and the smartphones then were still in the infancy. Twitter was launched in 15 July 2006. Facebook opened registration to all in 26 September 2006. Foursquare on 11 March 2009.  The first iPhone was launched in 27 June 2009. Google launched the Google Android Phone on 18 August 2008. It isn’t any surprised that the Singapore General Elections of 2011 has brought social networking in the fray with the smartphone playing an important part in spreading the messages of the various political parties. As most equate those using social networks as being used by the younger generation, the recent Foursquare check ins at the political rallies are an indication to where the younger generation are leaning towards. The Workers’ Party saw the most Foursquare check ins at its rally on the first day of campaigning.   This number of check ins show that the Workers’ Party has significantly ...

Nomination day is just around the corner yet if you have read “Marketing Warfare” by Al Ries and Jack Trout, you could easily identify with the strategies of the various political parties. “Marketing Warfare” isn’t about the battle of geographical conquest, but rather the battle for the positioning in the mind of the consumers. In the General Elections, the various political parties are too fighting for voters’ mindshare but for their heartshare too. Ries and Trout highlighted that companies with various marketshare have different objectives, which is similar when you start comparing the actions of the political parties. Party Number 1 (PAP) – Dominance of Market Share (Win as many seats to continue to be the next government) Party Number 2  (WP) – Increase Market Share (More than 1 seats in Parliament) Party Number 3 (SDP,NSP,SPP,RP) – Profitable Survival (Win at least 1 seat/GRC or at best more than 1/8th of the votes) If you are number 1, you should have a defensiv...