To be sure, opposition criticism of the ruling party's budget is nothing new. But rather than being forced to wait for parliament to meet to air their dissent, now opposition parties are able to post pre-emptively their criticisms online, shifting the time and space of Singapore's political debate. Each opposition party's posts of their competing budgets sparked robust discussions in a variety of online forums. Full story
OPINION: Media as politics in Singapore - Megawati Wijaya
Asia Times Online, 24 Mar 2011
SINGAPORE - Days before Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced the government's 2011 budget in parliament, the political opposition offered a glimpse of how it would allocate the national finances in a "shadow" budget. The state-controlled mainstream media gave the opposition announcement scant coverage, but it was picked up widely by a number of alternative news websites.
To be sure, opposition criticism of the ruling party's budget is nothing new. But rather than being forced to wait for parliament to meet to air their dissent, now opposition parties are able to post pre-emptively their criticisms online, shifting the time and space of Singapore's political debate. Each opposition party's posts of their competing budgets sparked robust discussions in a variety of online forums. Full story
To be sure, opposition criticism of the ruling party's budget is nothing new. But rather than being forced to wait for parliament to meet to air their dissent, now opposition parties are able to post pre-emptively their criticisms online, shifting the time and space of Singapore's political debate. Each opposition party's posts of their competing budgets sparked robust discussions in a variety of online forums. Full story
