I wanted to write about the freedom of speech forum that I attended today, but I decided to let that take a backseat and write about the government’s latest move to try and ‘counter’ what has been perceived to be a relatively anti-establishment Singapore cyberspace.

Mr Wang has beat me to writing about this (looks like he went home after the forum and started thinking about the topic, while I only just got home and sat down), and he’s done a pretty good job of analysing the various aspects of the move. However, I do want to focus on something that Mr Wang didn’t really explain in detail, and that is the really bad public relations strategies employed in the government’s approach to dealing with the new generation of internet savvy Singaporeans.

I thought that the backlash resulting from the Mr Brown incident would have given the government some important pointers on how to best approach the issue of cyberspace mainly being anti-establishment. Apparently, my assumption was wrong. To better illustrate my arguments, I think I shall spend a little time discussing why the cyberspace is chock-full of anti-establishment messages.

The reason, quite simply, is because the mainstream media does not offer enough plurality of opinions. If the mainstream media is able to cater to the yearnings of alternative and highly critical writings by Singaporeans, the Singaporean cyberspace will, I can confidently say, be alot less anti-establishment as it is currently. In a sense, the current state of Singaporean cyberspace, especially in blogosphere, is a clear reflection of the mood of the people, especially those with access to the Internet (which is I think is more than 50% of the entire Singapore population).

That being the case, to send people to do anonymous postings to rebutt criticisms will only incite those who are anti-establishment to be even more anti-establishment. And, since cyberspace is viewed by many Singaporeans to be the only avenue for free expression in Singapore, news that the government is going to conduct anonymous operations to try and counter anti-establishment views is just going to create resentment because it will be interpreted as an attempt to somewhat regulate expression in cyberspace.

I do not know which smart alec thought that it was a good idea to leak the news out to the mainstream media, but I seriously this step is strategically stupid. To use a simple analogy, the leaking of this operation is akin to the CIA holding a press conference announcing all the countries that their spies are going to infiltrate over the next 12 months. By giving out this very public announcement, the next time people read some pro-government (or even neutral) comments in cyberspace, people are going to think that it’s the work of the government. Totally defeats the effectiveness of the operation, no?

The damage doesn’t end there. News of this operation has simply just screwed the moderates in cyberspace. While there are many anti-establishment messages floating around there, there are many fair-minded commentators who give both credit and brickbats. These relatively moderate and neutral commentators are probably going to be suspected of being government agents. When fear is aroused, people will panick and suspicions will be abound. Now that news of the government’s attempt to ‘regulate’ cyberspace is out, the backlash is likely destroy the credibility of the moderates, who have been doing a pretty good job countering the extremists until this very unhelpful move came along.

Let’s see how things will work out. My hunch is that the government’s move will have the opposite of the intended effect. The government can assemble teams of IT savvy people, but I think they need to get some PR savvy people, as well as prominent people from inside the internet community. To play the game, you need to know the game in the first place. Of course, know when a secret should be kept secret.